Old Habits Die Hard
by disruptiveballoons
Summary: Kiran Wayne has a lot of bad habits. Habits like being secretive and nailbiting. But the more extreme ones usually end with hospital trips. But Kira needs to start anew and her new reputation lies on her not screwing up her new job. It doesn't help she that just slept with coworker. When Kira's secrets start to become tied to the cases, how long can she keep up the act?
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: This is my first ever Criminal Minds Fanfiction and I honestly have no clue what I'm doing. If you like it, thats cool, if you dont and you want to send me the construcive critiscism. Please do because I'd like to try and fix it.**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds.**

 _ **CHAPTER 1**_

Spencer Reid hated going to MENSA meetings. You think he would enjoy them, because for once he would be surrounded by people who understood his awkwardness and weren't annoyed by his spewing of random facts.

But MENSA meetings for Spencer were never fun. People who regularly showed up to these weren't awkward geniuses, but arrogant ones who showed up purely to show off. But one of his best friends, JJ had convinced him to go to this meeting. Mostly because it was in a hotel so close to his own apartment he could walk there in minutes, and because for once he was in town when one was occurring.

She also thought it would help take the load off. This last case had been especially stressful and had Bureau's upper management. Our entire case was nearly ruined because the forensic team on the ground. The team managed to misfile two CSI reports and an autopsy that led Spencer and his team to pass over the unsub briefly allowing him to kill another victim before they caught him.

The brass was furious that the mistakes like this had been made, and the entire team had been the center of the blame. It was not the team's fault, they can't do their jobs and watch the CSI's every move.

Chief Strauss promised to sort something out, which could only lead to more troubles for the team. Strauss had tried to get rid of their team leader and use one of their team members to dig up dirt on them, and now that Gideon had left. Who knew how her "solution" could affect the team.

After 30 minutes in this MENSA meeting Spencer wished he hadn't spent the time to come here. After another arrogant jerk came to talk to him about his great job, Spencer wanted to leave. The jerk reminded Spencer of the guys in high school, and anything that reminded Spencer of high school was bad.

Spencer left the hotel and walked out into the slightly chilled September Air and look down the street. The glittering lights of a sign caught his attention, the sign flashed letters that spelled out "BAR" in big bold letters. Spencer wasn't the biggest drinker, but he needed a drink after today.

He walked into the bar and was thankful that there was only a small crowd of people dancing to some pop song he didn't know. He scooted around the crowd and made his way to the edge of the bar.

"Scotch and soda, heavy on the soda" Spencer says to the bartender.

"I usually here the opposite" he jokes as he pours my drink.

Spencer takes a sip of his drink as he glanced across the room. The room was filled with a usual crowd of people who got drunk too much and people excessively danced. Not Spencer's usual crowd, where could he find a group of Star Trek Enthusiasts or a group of people who would want to talk about no one had discovered an elementary particle yet.

Spencer knew that the statistics said that there was at least one person here who would rather be at home drinking with a book. But Spencer was pretty sure he was that one person. At least until he saw the girl at the end of the bar.

As Spencer sipped his drink, his ear caught the unforgettable sound of flipping pages. He looked his left and to see a girl reading a copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae as she absentmindedly stirred her drink.

Spencer's first thought was that the girl was one of the few people in the world who came to a bar to read. She joined an even shorter list of people who came to bars to read early English literature. The list continued to decrease in size due to the speed at which she was reading. She read almost as fast as me, turning the page every couple of seconds. But the most unusual thing about this girl was that no matter how hard Spencer tried he couldn't take her eyes off her.

A red dress left the girls tan shoulders exposed and hugged her body in a way that captivated Spencer. Her dress flowed out from her waist and traveled down her legs to a pair of black boots. She leaned against a worn black leather jacket that rested on the back of her chair. The girls black curls tumbled down her bare shoulders to the middle of her back. The only thing keeping her curls out of her sparkling raven eyes was a small red flower clip pinned to the side of her head.

"It's rude to stare you know" she states as she looks up from her book.

Kira had come to DC for a fresh start. So she could stop being the Kiran Wayne and broken Roni, and she could be Kira. Just Kira. So there Kira sat at the bar as her friends danced in the crowd, completely aware of the man at the other end of the bar with the watered down scotch staring at her. She frankly found it unsettling,even though she found the man with the curly brown hair cute. Which is why she said something.

"Are you really reading that fast?" Spencer asked her. Kira rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back to her book. She had heard that question so many times it had become annoying.

"Our conscious minds can process 60 bits of information per a second, but our unconscious minds can-" Kira recited the fact but was caught by surprise when the man cut her off.

"Process 11 million" Spencer finishes for her with an awkward smile. Kira looked towards Spencer with a curious look and mischievous smile.

"Great now I have proof that not everyone I meet is an idiot" she joked.

"Why are you reading in a bar?" Spencer asks as walked closer to her. He took a seat on the corner bar stool, which allowed him to be a seat away from her. But he was close enough to know she smelled like nutmeg and coffee.

Kira slid a bookmark into the pages of her book and points across the room to her two best friends, Audrey Sheppard and Mabel Evans.

"See those two girls" Kira said. Spencer followed her hand to look in the direction she was pointing. Spencer spotted in the crowd two very pretty girls, one blonde and the other a brunette dancing to the song currently playing.

"They're my best friends. they dragged me to three pubs tonight to meet new people, since I just moved here" Kira explained. "I'd meet more people I liked in a bookstore though".

Spencer sent her another awkward smile. "Where did you move here from?"

"New York City" she states. "I miss it already but the new job awaits".

Spencer could feel their small talk slowing the conversation to a stop. Spencer panicked, feeling his heart rate increase, had he messed this up?

"Historia Regum Britanniae, The history of the Kings Of Britain" Spencer translated trying to remain casual. He ran a hand through his hair, an uncommon habit for him but the nerves of talking to a pretty girl had taken hold. "Light reading?" he asks as joke. Spencer was deeply worried it wasn't a very good joke.

"Yeah I've read it before I'm just reading it again for the Arthurian Court" Kira elaborated as casually as she could. It was only half true. Kira did absolutely adore the Arthurian Court and anything to do with it. She had a dozen books on the subject and was an avid fan of the BBC show Merlin, despite its inaccuracies. But that wasn't the only reason Kira was reading the book again, Kira adored history to the point that Kira's last dog had been named Charlemagne and her current fish was named Kublai Khan.

"Did you know that Geoffrey's original account of the Arthur's court never included Lancelot-" Spencer recites

"Or the Holy grail. It was later written by French poet Chrétien de Troyes in the 12th century" Kira finished for him. Spencer's smile got bigger with every word she said after she cut him off. He wanted to laugh when she used a very adorable French accent for Chrétien's name. But he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

Kira saw his mouth quirk and giggled a little bit and then just smiled at the man with curly hair.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"I don't think I can tell you" she states simply.

"Why not?" Spencer asked, his voice getting slightly higher with a confused panic. Had Spencer done something wrong?

" ' _What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' "_ The girl quoted with such precision that Spencer was in awe.

"Are you quoting Shakespeare?" Spencer asked, even though it was obvious that she was quoting Juliet's lines.

"I'm saying names aren't important" Kira says not even bothering to answer if she was quoting Shakespeare. "To me they take away from the experience of actually meeting a person".

"How so?" Spencer asks scrunching his nose.

"As soon as I tell you my name, you can walk away for a second and Google all of my interests and likes. Without ever having to know me" She explained.

"I'm not really all that involved in technology and the internet" Spencer pointed out, hoping that would get her to tell him her name.

"Doesn't matter" she says. "So no names for now.

Spencer's smile hadn't disappeared from his face for awhile. "Ok no names" he agreed.

The two sat at the bar, just drinking and talking for an hour. Each drink made Kira giggle and laugh harder at Spencer's jokes about science and calculus, and each of Spencer's drinks filled him with a desire to be closer to her. They talked about anything and everything, from the works of Confucius to quantum mechanics.

Spencer may have not gotten her name but he learned a lot about her. She had a Boston accent, but she used a lot of European terms. She liked science puns and made them frequently, she also had quite a knack for building a little structures out of the drinking straws. In their hour together she had managed to build the Eiffel Tower and part of the Statue of Liberty. Spencer was especially excited when she shouted about how she was so sure that the first Elementary Particle that would be discovered would be the one that explained the existence of mass.

"Do you wanna dance?" Spencer blurted out in his hazy state. Even though Spencer was intoxicated, he almost immediately regretted it. Considering Spencer had little to no dancing experience, he especially had no experience dancing with girls.

Kira threw her head back laughing at the spontaneous request to dance. Spencer's cheeks flushed with a tint of pink as Kira laughed. Spencer stared straight ahead as she laughed and when Kira finally stops laughing she gave him a look. .

"Do you really think you could handle dancing with me String Bean?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes" Spencer stated with a lot of false confidence. He probably couldn't handle dancing with her.

"Well I would love to dance with you but not here" she says as she shoves her book into her purse. leans over the bar and grabs a bottle of wine.

"Devon!" She calls as she pulls on her leather jacket and the bartender looks her way. She leans over the bar and grabs a bottle of wine and the bartender starts to protest. "Put it on my friends tab and could you tell them I'm leaving".

"Sure" the bartender says hesitantly. With that the Kira grabbed Spencer's hand and pulled him out of the bar and into the brisk fall weather of Washington DC.

* * *

"Where are you taking me" Spencer asked the girl with sweeping black curls. Spencer liked holding her skin was soft but sections of her hands were calloused, like she spent all day working with her hands. She kept a forceful grip on my wrist as she practically dragged me through the streets of Washington DC.

"Come on!" she says excitedly. "I wanna show you something!". Her hair moved with the wind as she pulled me through the streets, her dress fluttering around her knees. Spencer's converse clad feet had trouble keeping up with her boots. Everytime Spencer stumbled Kira let out a jingle bell laugh that sounded like music.

Kira released the man's hand when they had reached the crosswalk to let him catch his breath. As he took deep breaths Kira watched him press the crosswalk button, to which Kira rolled her eyes. This man could never hack it in NYC. Kira took off across the road before the light even had a chance to turn green.

"Hey wait!" Spencer shouted after her as she dodged between the cars in the middle road. Cars honked at her as she dashed in between them finally ending up on the other side, completely unharmed.

"Come on!" she shouts as she waves to me from across the street. The women stood on the other side of the like a madman with a bottle of wine and her hair wild in the wind. Her purse kept sliding down her shoulders. Her eyes sparkling with mischief. Spencer had decided her eyes were like the night sky, because they looked bottomless but sparkled when she laughed.

Spencer, against his better judgment, dashed into the street. Holding out a hand to keep from getting hit. Cars honk and screech to quick stops as they try to avoid hitting me. Spencer clearly wasn't as agile as the mystery girl. When Spencer finally makes it to the other side of the street, surprisingly unharmed. The girl is bent over laughing at Spencer's attempt at crossing the street in traffic..

"That's was insane!" Spencers says, clearly out of breath.

"Don't you ever have any fun?" she asked through her giggles. Spencer never liked being laughed at, but he would have shoved a pie in his face if it meant she would keep smiling.

"No" Spencer admitted.

"At least your honest" the girls says with a shrug. Again she took Spencer's hand and pulled him down the sidewalk. Spencer didn't have to struggle to keep up with her, running in the middle of the road had led to an adrenaline rush. Spencer was able to stay a few step behind her, feeling her hair brush against his arms was a simple pleasure Spencer had just discover.

Spencer was pulled into the park he passed on the way to work every day. He had never gone in, but the mystery girl had decided that had to change.

"I thought you were new here, how could you have something to show me?" the man asked Kira as she pulled him off the parks cement path and through the dew covered grass.

"I have been to a lot of places and every park has-Here it is!" Kira answered him halting to a stop in front of a small duck pond.

"Isn't it gorgeous?" Kira asked him. Kira had a thing for bodies of water, she had grown up in Florida. Water was something that could always calm her, it was always pristine and beautiful. It Was always the perfect subject for a photo, a painting, or a sketch. Was the one thing everyone on this planet needed. Was the subject of Kira's current goals.

Spencer thought the duck pond was a bit of a let down, it wasn't much. It was more of a rain collection pond to be honest. Algae covered the corners of the pond and weeds grew at the edges.

"A rain collection pond. It's probably festering with disease and probably extremely acid-" Spencer stated. Spencer Reid was struggling to see what the mystery girl had dragged him for.

"Really?" the mystery girl asks him. She cut him off during his tangent with an exasperated look. She twists off the cap of the bottle of wine and hands it to Spencer.

"I want you to drink this" she instructed. "I appreciate knowledge on so many levels,but not when it gets in the way of the true appreciation of something beautiful".

"I don't think I should drink anymore" Spencer starts to argue/

"Shut up and drink" she orders with a slight giggle.

Spencer hesitantly put the bottle to his lips and gulped down some of the cheap wine. It was white wine, Spencer hated white wine. It tasted acidic and it wasn't at all tasty, but it did the job of making Spencer slightly more intoxicated.

"There you go!" Kira cheered as the man downed the wine. She bounded behind him with a weird giddy step that confused her and the man. She wrapped her hands around his eyes, shielding his view. It was difficult, because he was well over 6ft and Kira was barely 5'4'., but she managed to effectively shield his view of the duck pond.

"Now look again and don't focus on science of history of this" she instructed. Remembering what her father had taught her the first time they had gone to an art show together. remembering the words she said to her little brother the day she took him to his first art gallery. "Focus on how the little things make the big things".

The mystery girl removed her hands from his face and let Spencer look at the lake. This time when Spencer looked at the lake he tried to follow her instructions. He looked back to the lake and saw how the moon glinted across the pond, and the reeds shook in the wind. Spencer focused on how the lake rippled every time a fish came to the surface. Spencer studied how the moon seemed to get caught in the girls raven curls.

"Its captivating" Spencer stated quietly to himself. Spencer wasn't sure what he was talking about anymore, the girl in front of him or the duck pond.

"I'm glad you can see it too" Kira smiled at the man who was now looking towards the duck pond with a different look. Kira snatched the bottle of wine from him and took a few sips. Kira discarded her purse, shaking her head as the buzz from the alcohol filled her head. "Now I think I owe you a dance".

"There's no music" he pointed out. He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion at Kira's statement.

"Who says we need music?" Kira asked as she twirled around. Kira had done dance for years, for a long time it was what she thought she would do for the rest of her life. She barely lost her footing in the grass as she twirled and swung her hips to an invisible melody.

"La La de la la de la" she sang as she twirls and spins the grass. Spencer wasn't sure she was aware she was singing out loud. But as she twirled Spencer couldn't help but think that she was surprisingly graceful for her level of toxicity.

"I thought you wanted a dance Stretch?" she asks as she grabbed Spencer's arm.

'I can't dance-" Spencer started to say as she placed one of his hands around her waist.

"Everyone can dance" she argues. "Just some are better than others"

Kira took his hand and puts one over his shoulder. Kira wondered if the wine bottle that was still in her hand was hurting him as it tapped against his clavicle. Kira pulled him towards her forcing the two into a slow waltz.

"La de la la de la I want to play some simple melodies" Kira sang.

Spencer mustered enough courage to crudely twirl her around. As he twirled her around and she . When she comes back into his arms her scent overwhelms him, and in that moment nothing else seemed to exist for Spencer. All that was there was this girl with the black curls, calloused hands, raven eyes and her nutmeg and coffee smell.

After that Spencer wasn't as awkward. He danced with her as though he had known her for years. He twirled her and dipped her, and every time he did she would laugh. After every dip and twirl she would come back into the standard waltz position, but pressed up just a little bit closer to Spencer.

So there they were, dancing at the side of the lake occasionally drinking. It had gotten a lot colder, and it didn't help that the both of them were heavily intoxicated, it was good thing neither planned on driving for a while. But for some reason the buzz made the experience better. Spencer wasn't worried about saying the wrong thing, and Kira wasn't worried about covering up her secret. Instead they focused on dancing… and talking... and laughing… and of course drinking. Spencer hadn't danced with anyone like this before and Kira hadn't laughed this much in a long time.

"You know what?" Kira asked him as she tossed the empty bottle towards her purse.

"What?' he asked her.

"I want to kiss you?" Kira stated, her eyes were glued on his lips.

Spencer heart stops as the words leave her mouth. He isn't given much time to think the statement through. She is pulling Spencer's lips down onto hers. Her lips were soft and tasted of white wine.

She pulls away from the kiss as quickly as she started it.

"Are you OK with this?" she ask him. Spencer doesn't answer, instead he pulls her back in for the kiss. He wanted nothing more than to taste the last of the wine off of her lips. After their night together Spencer had grown quite fond of the taste of white wine.

Kira was quick to wrap her arms around his neck deepening the kiss. The arms around her waist pulling her closer to him. She was pressed tight up against him, but it didn't feel close enough.

They stayed like that, just kissing by a lake. This position, this feeling was somewhere Spencer hadn't been at in a while.

She was the first to break the kiss, much to Spencer's disappointment.

"We are gonna get a Public indecency charge" she says with a laugh after her lips left Spencer's. She was out of breath, Spencer could feel her lungs inflating and deflating at an unusually rapid pace. Spencer was sure he was the same way.

"You're probably right" Spencer agreed with an awkward laugh.

Kira looked him in his eyes. Kira could have sworn up and down that her decision to say the next thing out of her mouth was heavily influenced by those brown eyes. But it could have also been the alcohol. It could have also been that Kira didn't want the night to end.

"Do you live near here?" Kira asked, she almost couldn't believe the words had come out of her mouth. But she also couldn't contain her excitement when the answer that came out of his mouth was "Yes".

* * *

Spencer had never brought a girl to his apartment. But as he stumbled up the stairs to his second floor apartment, with the mystery girl laughing the entire way. He surprisingly didn't feel nervous.

"Will you just unlock the door already Stretch?"she teased as she leaned against the door to his apartment.

Spencer unlocked the door and she falls back into the apartment. Spencer holds out his to catch her but she rights herself and twirls into the apartment.

"You have a nice place" she says throwing her purse onto my couch. She kicks off her boots as she picks up a book that was laying on a table next to the couch.

"Chaucer?" she asks holding up the book.

"I have a thing for 15th Century literature" Spencer elaborated as he locked the door to his apartment.

"Why" she asks.

"I just do" Spencer says as he crosses the room in several long strides. He places on the girls chin and kisses her forcefully. Spencer had lost all of his inhibitions, all he wanted was to feel her against him. Spencer tangled her fingers in her hair. Her hands rested against his chest slowly unbuttoning the buttons on his button up. Her tongue found its way into his mouth, leading to A moan escapes his mouth and he can feel her smile with pride of being the reason that he was feeling such pleasure.

She pushes him away from her and unzips her jacket. Spencer stood there out of breath, his shirt in a disarray and filled with desire, while she stood there removing her jacket with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Oooh is this your bed" she says to him with a look that said nothing but trouble. She dropped her jacket on the floor and swayed her hips in a way that compelled Spencer to follow her into his room.

She falls back onto the bed and tangles her body in Spencer's sheets. Her hair was sprayed out behind her, similar to that of a fan.

"Come here" she says as she latched onto Spencer's arm and pulled him down onto the bed. She pushes me onto the bed and throws her legs over me. She leans down and kisses me deeply. Spencer's hands travel up her body, his fingers latch onto the zipper of her dress as she fiddles with the buttons on his vest.

"Why do you where so many layers" she asks as she pulls 's mood falls a little bit as he loses his group on the zipper. She furiously undoes buttons and Spencer loosened the tie around his neck to help the situation. "There's the tie, the vest and the shirt!"

"Why did you insist on dancing in the cold?" Spencer asked as he undid the tie and throw it across the room.

"Cause I knew you'd keep me warm" she says with a laugh as she leans in to kiss me again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Oh My God people actually read this fanfiction! I have no idea if everybody liked it, but I got a follower and some good reviews! So I was motivated to put up another chapter. It's a little short but I wanted to post something today and I had a really busy morning. The next chapter should be a lot longer.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not Criminal Minds**

 ** _CHAPTER 2_**

Kira had woken up in a very unfamiliar place, and when you traveled as much as Kira did, all you ever did was wake up in unfamiliar places. But the whole point of moving to DC was so Kira could be a bit more stationary.

She wasn't at Audrey and May's hotel room and she wasn't at her new apartment. So where was she?

The walls were a light green and the sheets were scratchy. Light came through a window in front of her and shined in her eyes. It took her awhile to realize that someone was sleeping in the bed next to her and her clothes were missing.

Kira looked over her shoulder at the sleeping lump with messy brown hair and lean muscles. Flashes of last night come flooding back to her with a pounding headache. How she had spent all night with a guy she met at a bar in a city she had just moved to. Wait! This was the guy she had met, right?

Kira studied his face. Curly brown hair, angled cheekbones and visible smile lines. Kira was sure it was the same guy from the bar. His face was very structured, it be very easy to draw...Frankly it was perfectly engineered.

God Roni! This was the man you slept with last night. He wasn't one of your machines or models.

After Kira had scolded herself for getting distracted, she berated herself for the fact that she had called herself Roni. She had come to DC to be Kira, she was done being Roni.

Kira looked over his shoulder and for a clock. When she caught sight of the digital clock on his bedside table, she made a small Yelp. Its was 6:30! She was supposed to meet Erin at the office at 7:30!

Kira could feel her heart racing with a nervous energy. She was gonna mess this up, she was gonna have to move back to NYC after being in the district for a week.

 _"God Roni-I mean Kira!"_ Kira thought. _"What was your new years resolution? Just remind yourself!"_

Kira's new years resolution was to not be such a screw up, and to Kira being late to her first day because she had slept with some stranger was screwing up.

 _"Roni-Urgh Kira!"_ Kira deliberated, still angry at herself for not being able to call herself Kira. _"Focus or you'll lose the job and be more of a screw up"_

Kira needed to focus on the small things she had to do to get the big things done. When Kira did this her anxiety wasn't as bad. So Kira took a deep breath before she contemplate what her next move should be. Kira needed to figure out how to leave this apartment without waking her partner.

First thing was getting out of the bed.

Kira sat up slowly, trying not wake the curly headed boy. The room spun around her head as she sat up, the room also seemed to be banging a mallet against her head. Kira tried not to groan out loud, despite how much her hangover hurt. The stupid hangover was probably not helping her anxiety.

Now Kira was not only showing up late to her meeting, she was showing up hungover. Wonderful.

Kira carefully crawled out of the bed, trying not to shift the weight of the mattress too much so the man would wake up. He rustled a bit in his sleep as Kira moved, but he didn't wake up. Kira let out a sigh of relief.

After Kira successfully got out of the bed without waking consort, she needed to get dressed. She gathered her clothes off the floor, and tried to get dressed as quickly as possible.

 _"Underwear...Bra..Dress...Jacket...Boot...boot"_ Kira listed each piece of clothing she put on. When she was completely dressed. She left the bedroom to find her purse, she found it laying on the couch, amidst a pile of books in what looked like the living room.

Wow he had a lot of books. Kira thought only would ever purchase this many books.

Kira checked her purse to make sure she had everything in it. Her cell phone with a zillion missed calls from her friends wondering where she was, her keys, her wallet and the book she had been reading last night at the bar.

Kira also found a hair tie which she used to secure her bed head of black curls. Now that she was dressed and had all her belonging Kira could leave, and as she made this realization she made her way to the door.

 _"Maybe I should leave a note"_ Kira thought has she had her hand positioned over the door knob.

 _"No don't leave a note!"_ said another part of her brain. _"You don't have time for a relationship!"_

 _"But it would be a good way to prove that you are trying to be responsible and you could shove it in Audrey's face"_ said the part of her brain that wants her to leave a note. Kira could practically see the devil and the angel balanced on her shoulders, helping her choose between the two decisions. She was sure this fictitious angel would have wanted her to leave a note to be considerate, while the devil she had fabricated wanted her to leave and get to her job.

 _"Yes my one night stand with an absolute stranger would show her!"_ shouted the devil.

How would Audrey be proud of her for a one night stand with an absolute stranger? And for one this wasn't the first time this had happened either. Ever since Kira had returned from overseas she had started to sleep around with any guy that seemed halfway decent and never calling them again. Audrey had also pointed out that she would date guys that were absolutely terrible and postpone the inevitable break up for an unreasonable amount of time.

So when Audrey and May had come with her to Washington DC to help her move, completely supportive of her new view on life. How could she justify her reverting to her old ways when she was trying to turn over a new leaf?

But the guy seemed so nice, maybe if she left him her number they could go out on an actual date and Kira could try to be in a legitimate relationship.

It's not like her new job would leave her much time to date, but still.

What was that checklist Audrey told me to go through before I slept with a guy?

 _"Was he a good kisser?"_ she asked herself. Yes, he was a very good kisser.

 _"Was he fun to talk to?"_ Yes, I mean of what I remember our conversations were engaging and he liked a lot of the thing Kira liked.

 _"Could he be abusive?"_ Maybe, anyone could be abusive. But the way he was last night. Always asking if Kira was OK before he did anything. It was such a simple question, but it had such large resonance in Kira's mind. It had been a long time since a guy had asked Kira if she was OK like that.

So 3/3! Kira could sleep with the guy! Dammit! Kira had already done that.

Maybe that meant Kira should leave him a note? What if he doesn't want me to leave a note? What if he thought this was just casual? So what if he wanted this to be casual? Kira certainly didn't need a relationship right now!

But Kira knew deep down she wanted this to not be casual. So she could laugh like she had yesterday again.

Kira glanced towards the clock in the living room. It was 6:45, Kira did not have time for this!

Kira's mind travels back to their all their conversations from the night before. How they had talked about everything Kira had never been able to talk about with normal people. Their talks about Confucius, Quantum Mechanics and Ciphers-

Before Kira completely processes what she was planning she was digging through her purse for a scrap piece of paper and a pen. She quickly scribbled down a little puzzle for him to solve

Now everything rested in his hands. Kira hated to leave things up to chance or other people, as far as she was concerned the two were the same thing. But here she was doing it anyway. If he could figure it out, he could call her. If he could figure it out maybe he was worth the time of a real date.

Maybe Kira would finally get a chance to turn over a new leaf not only in her professional life, but in her private life. Kira walked to the table where his phone was and places the note under his cellphone.

After she had placed the note, Kira raced out of the apartment and onto the pavement. Hoping to catch a cab to her apartment so she could go to her first day of work dressed like a professional, not a hot mess.

* * *

Spencer woke up on the wrong side of his bed and missing his pajamas.

Spencer sat up in his bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. His head pounded and his eyes burned in the light.

 _"What had happened last night?"_ Spencer asked himself.

Spencer's mind filled with flashes of the girl with sweeping black curls and the sparkling raven eyes. She laughed and dance in his hazy memories. He remember her kissing him and he could smell the nutmeg and the coffee. Spencer could see her reacting under his touch.

Spencer looked around his room and saw no sign of her. Was she all a dream? She couldn't be! Spencer remembered her so clearly! The way her hands felt and the way her hair felt.

Spencer throw the sheets back and something red flies across the room and towards the wall. Spencer bent over and picked it up. It was a red flower clip, one that had spent the previous night nestled in the curls of a mystery girl.

Spencer face filled with an idiotic grin as he held the proof of the mystery girls existence. Of course she was real, but where was she? Spencer placed the flower on the bedside table and pulled his boxer briefs off the floor. He slid them on as he walked out into the living room. A quick glance around the glance around the room showed that the mystery girl was not here. Spencer went to check in the bathroom and didn't see her there either.

Spencer's idiotic grin disappeared from his face as quickly as it had appeared. Guess Spencer was just some fling for her. Is that why she never told him her name? To keep herself from getting attached.

Spencer's heart ached, she was the first girl Spencer had been interested in since college. And while Spencer had committed himself to her before even finding out her name, she thought of him as some fling. Spencer walked back to his room and picked the flower clip up and threw it angrily at the wall.

One magical night filled with captivating conversations, a picturistic kiss and the night hasn't even been close to ending. It just got better and better.

At least it had for Spence, was he the only one that felt any of that? Had he let himself get too attached?

Spencer looked at his alarm clock beside me. It was 7:10! He had to be at the office in 20 minutes. Spencer bolted off his bed and began rushing through the process it took him to get ready.

As Spencer did every action of his Morning Routine the mystery girl was on his mind. As he brushed his teeth, he thought of her dazzling smile. As Spencer to got dressed in a pair of khakis, a blue shirt and black converse, he thought of the way that red dress hugged her body. As he tied his turquoise tie, he thought of how she tangled herself in the sheets when they first fell into the room. How she pulled him down onto the bed and tangled their bodies together.

Spencer pulled on his gray vest and tried to shake her from his head. While Spencer was here thinking about her, she certainly wasn't thinking about him right now.

Spencer grabbed his dark blue blazer off a hook and went to grab his messenger bag. He grabbed his bag from the floor. His wallet was in the bag, but where was his phone?Spencer walked into his living room in search of the phone, only to find his phone resting near a folded sheet of paper.

What was this? Spencer asked himself as he shoved his phone into his pocket. He pick up the paper and stared at the swirling cursive letters.

 _I had a lot of fun last night :) Still wanna know my name Stretch? I wanna know yours 2_

 _You can call me...If you're smart enough._

 _64165611212814448483296_

Spencer's idiotic grin had reappeared. She was clearly baiting him with a puzzle, or maybe it truly was a test to see how smart he was. It didn't really matter what it was, because she wanted him to call her. She had fun with him, and most importantly he wasn't just some fling.

Spencer ran back to his room and picked the flower clip up off the floor and clipped it to the note, he shoved the paper into his vest pocket. He then raced out of his apartment so he could catch the next train to Quantico. Once seated on the train Spencer spent the entire ride staring at the note, just trying to figure out her puzzle so he could call her.

But the entire ride Spencer let that idiotic grin consume his face, not letting it falter for even a moment. He had no reason to let it falter, because she wanted him to call.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Guys! 5 followers! I don't think I even thought one person would read this! And now there is 5!**

 **OHMYGOD AS I AM TYPING THIS THERE IS A 6th PERSON !**

 **It makes me so happy! Like I wanna jump around and dance and stuff!**

 **So I realized that I never said when this fanfiction takes place, so I am doing it now. It takes place after Season 3 Episode 4. I am also about to just throw in random cases I have made up.**

 **Also it is important to note that I probably will be changing the title of this story in the near future. When I published the story I didnt think anyone would read it so I didnt really care what the title was, so I put this really stereotypical OC fanfic title. But I'm workshopping names so the 6 people reading this dont have to suffer anymore. So if it like changes dont get confused or something.**

 ** _CHAPTER 3_**

Kira remembers the day she was told she was a genius. A 163 IQ made her the smartest person in Duval County Public Schools. Then when Kira moved to Boston, and she was still one of the smartest people at her stuck up private school.

But her father always said what made Kira smart wasn't her IQ, but was her ability to think outside the box. He said Kira could do what most Engineer's spent their entire lives learning how to do, she could think analytically and creatively at the same time. He said if Kira tried hard enough she could do what every engineer thought was impossible, make something out of nothing.

And while the first bajillion times Kira's father had said that to her it made no sense, but it had grown on her. One of the things Kira missed most about her father, Pax was his ability to keep Kira humble yet motivated.

When Kira first learned she was a genius she was certainly never planning on working for the government, she had actually wanted to be a teacher. Specifically a professor. She wanted to see if she can teach people to do what she could do, to think creatively and analytically at the same time. She wanted to inspire the same way her teachers had inspired her.

But when Kira joined the CIA at the ripe old age of 16, she didn't realize that she would have to put her dream of teaching on hold. Instead of inspiring aspiring engineers or historians(Kira would have loved to teach a history class) Kira had used her brain and her amazing ability to think Creatively and Analytically as Roni.

She had used it to chase warlords and people responsible for mass genocide around the world as part of a red cell team. She also had the uncanny ability to understand criminals from the smallest thing that they left behind, because Kira was an engineer. She took the people she chased and turned them into machines, for some reason this worked. One minute she was staring at a fiber of cloth and then before she knew it she was smiling at the bad guys from behind a wall of bars.

That's how she helped people, she did it for 2 years. he would never be entirely happy, but that was her own fault not the job. At least it wasn't the job until Uganda.

Kira's hands tightened around the wheel of the truck as her mind thought of what had happened in Uganda. She could feel her heart beating a little faster. She shook her head quickly to rid her head of the terrible memory.

After Uganda Kira's entire passion had changed. Kira wasn't content with saving a few people at a time. She needed to save a mass amount of people at once. That had started the insane pipe dream that had brought her back to New York.

The pipe dream being that Kira could help end poverty.

That pipe dream was what made Kira want to turn over a new leaf. It took her a month to set up her company that was part think tank, ProTech. A company that would specialize in private contracting and putting the money earned to a variety of charities. It wouldn't earn her much money but she had decided she would follow her childhood dream of being a professor to sustain herself.

It took her 3 months to get one customer. It took her 4 months to realize she wouldn't get anymore, because Roni Wayne had managed to destroy any chance at starting a company and being a professor. Roni Wayne had created an image for herself as the drunk party girl, as the psychotic genius who blew up her shed during an experiment, she was the girl who had nearly messed up the mission in Uganda. Who would want to hire that girl?

Kira's only chance at getting enough money to fund her outrageous projects was to get a whole bunch of contracts from the government. Government contracts would also allow her leeway if she were to ever do projects that needed FDA approval

So when Erin Strauss, her old mentor had called offering her job. Kira had jumped at the chance. She would get to move to a new city and start over, plus she would get her foot in the door with a government contract with the FBI. Maybe she would be able to get a professor job somewhere in the city. It was a win-win-win-win.

But Kira had probably messed that up, since she had showed up an hour late to the meeting.

Kira checked her watch for the time as she hopped out of the cab of her beat up red truck. It was 8:45, and Kira was more than an hour late. But she couldn't be held accountable for the traffic. Plus Audrey and May had also wasted some of her precious time yelling at her for sleeping with some stranger.

Kira pulled on the edge of the plain khaki skirt Audrey had paired with a white shirt covered in flying in birds and a tan belt. Audrey had forced Kira into a pair of brown heels. Kira's signature leather jacket was in her hands, which was the only piece of clothing Kira had consented to wear.

Audrey and May had unanimously decided that since Kira might be fired for being so late to the meeting. She should dress to impress. Audrey had even tried to straighten Kira's hair. But almost immediately gave up when she realize how long it would take. Instead Audrey had put Kira's curly black locks into a very loose braid, that was barely keeping the hair contained.

If there was one thing Kira hated about herself it was her thick black hair. That stupid genetic had given her. Asians were famous for their thick hair that was almost completely impossible. But in this moment in time she hated this khaki skirt more.

Kira ran into FBI's building here in Quantico Virginia, the stupid Khaki skirt fluttering around her thighs. She approached the desk in the center of the lobby.

"Hi I have a meeting with the Erin Strauss" Kira says to the guy behind the desk. She tried to say it as professional as possible, like she had entirely meant to come an hour late to his meeting.

"Are you Kiran Wayne?" the guy behind the desk asked Kira.

"Yes" Kira stated. "But it's just Kira"

"Anderson Strauss's 7:30 is here!" the secretary called across the lobby.

"Agent Strauss has gone to brief the BAU on some important staff changes. I'm supposed to take you to her office" Anderson explained.

"Wonderful, lead the way!" Kira said cheerfully.

"Way to go! You are being super cool and professional Roni-Argh I mean Kira!" Kira thought to herself as Anderson led her through the halls. The took an elevator to the 3rd floor and took 2 right turns before Anderson stopped and opened a door for Kira.

"Chief Strauss will be with you as soon as she's done with BAU" Anderson explained.

"It's no hurry" Kira said as Anderson walked away.

Kira glanced around Erin's office. It was pretty spacious, it clearly showed she was in a position of power. The last time Kira saw her mentor she was in a position of power, but ira couldn't believe she had made Section Chief. Kira was proud that her mentor had made such strides in her career.

Unlike Kira who had been unknowingly circling a toilet bowl for the past two years.

She picked up a picture off of Erin's desk and smiled to herself. It was a picture of Kira on the day Erin a long time ago, when Kira was 16. The two were at a target range and Kira and Erin were both wearing their goggles and earmuffs. This picture was taken the day Kira had finally hit the bullseye. Erin had taught Kira everything she knew about being an agent.

But now Kira wasn't an agent anymore, she was going to be the engineer that contributed to the end of poverty. She might be able to be the engineer who was also a professor.

Kira had even met a nice guy, and while she wasn't planning on marrying the guy. It was nice to think that maybe Kira could learn to commit to a relationship again.

So far there had been nothing bad about her move to DC.

* * *

Spencer ran into the BAU's bullpen and saw none of the team's members sitting at their desks or in their offices. Spencer glanced up to conference room and saw the team sitting at their seats with Strauss standing at the head of the room. Spencer dashed up the steps and walked into the conference room as calmly as he could.

"Sorry I'm late. My alarm didn't go off" Spencer apologized as he took his seat at the conference table. "What did I miss?".

Spencer could see that this meeting was extremely important, it was definitely a meeting he shouldn't have been late too. The entire team was here, including Garcia.

"The brass are giving you a new agent" Strauss said from her place at the head of the room.

"To fill Gideon's position?" Spencer asked, trying to hide the disappointment that his favorite teammate had left.

"No we are adding her for a completely different reason" Strauss responded. "The brass has decided to give you a Forensic Psychologist"

"What why?" Spencer asked confused. "The entire team has studied Forensic Psychology. Why give us an agent that's only purpose is to do something that the entire team is already capable of doing ".

"While her specialty Forensic Psychology is her specialty, she is also a gifted forensic analyst. The brass has decided to add her to your team, as your personal forensic analyst to help with your cases" Strauss elaborates.

"'Do we really need a forensic analyst?"Prentiss asks. "We work with CSI on the ground".

"The team does a lot of cases in small towns that barely have fingerprinting down pat" Strauss says. "Plus after what happened on your last case the Senate Committee's insistence on adding someone who can assure that something like that can't happen again".

"Last time was a fluke, we can't work the case and also babysit the CSI" Morgan argues.

"That fluke could have gotten all of you seriously reprimanded" Strauss says. "Autopsy reports were switched and crime scene photos were mixed around".

"Mistakes like that get people killed" Hotch says in a controlled voice. "And in this case were we lucky we only had one extra victim".

Hotch was furious when another body had been found. They were outside what the thought was the unsub's house when they got the call. As soon as they hung up Hotch was determined to figure out where they had gone wrong, and how they could have messed up so badly as to allow another person die.

"The brass are demanding that something be done to make sure that something like that never happens again" Strauss elaborate. "Agent Wayne will work like JJ does, coordinating any and all CSI investigations and in smaller towns she'll run the investigations. She's also gonna be running base here updating our own analysis labs through the duration of her transfer".

"How long will we have her?" JJ asks.

"At this moment in time 6 months, but her transfer could be extended" Strauss answers.

"Why only 6 months?" Hotch asks.

"Her main job besides being an analyst is to set up systems that would ensure proper CSI tactics and investigation" Strauss explains.

"She could get in the way" Morgan points out. "We don't have time to train a newbie".

'I assure you this agent is far from a newbie, she has done many forensic jobs and other assignments with the CIA before this job"

"We're getting a CIA transfer?" Prentiss asks.

"Is that a bad thing?" Garcia asks with a worried look. In Garcia's case she was worried that a CIA agent might be the reason a member of her team got hurt. Or maybe CIA agents were meaner than FBI agents.

"Not necessarily" Hotch responds says. "They tend to be a lot more secretive due to the way they run the CIA".

"Yes she's been on contract with the CIA the most, but she has been passed around between multiple branches of the government, including Interpol" Strauss explains.

"How did you manage to get a successful CIA agent to stop and settle down in Quantico?" I ask.

"She is doing this as a favor to me" Strauss lied, she was almost sure that BAU knew she was hiding something. They were a group of profilers.

The truth was Agent Wayne had yet to say yes to her proposal. If Kira had come to their meeting this morning Erin was sure she could have gotten her to agree. At this point Erin was 75% sure Kira would say yes to working with the BAU, so she had gone ahead with the team's debrief and had her fingers crossed that she could convince her student to follow along with the plan.

"When will we get to meet her?" JJ asks.

"She should be arriving sometime before you leave for your next case, but you will not be leaving Quantico until she does" Strauss says. Her phone beeps and she pulls it out of her pocket, it was a text from her secretary saying that Agent Kira had arrived and was waiting in Strauss's office.

"I have other issues to deal with, I will be bring Agent Wayne back before you have to leave for your next case" Strauss says going to leave the room.

Hotch gets up quickly and follows the Section chief out into the hall.

"Strauss!" he calls after her.

"What is it Hotchner?" Strauss asks impatiently. She had left Kira's transfer files on her desk and she knew Kira was as nosy as nosy could get.

'If this is another ploy to dig up dirt-" Hotch started to say.

"Hotchner don't be so full of yourself" Strauss said quickly. While a small part of Strauss had suggested Kira to be a member of the team because she knew Kira would be the only member of the team who wouldn't go completely against protocol. Her main reason for suggesting her was that Kira was a perfect fit.

"I suggested Agent Wayne cause I knew she would benefit your team" Strauss explains. "Trust me, you're wary now but after 6 months with you won't know what to do without her"

"Very well" Hotch says turning back and heading into the conference room. When he walked into the room he saw his team still seated in their chairs, patiently waiting for his orders.

"There is no way the brass is going to change their minds on this new agent, so we are just going to have to deal with having her around" Hotch says."Strauss has promised she will be completely capable, so we will have to just find a way to work with her".

"I'm just hoping little Miss CIA doesn't try and change the way we do our casework" Morgan's states as he gets out of his seat. "That stuff already takes forever".

"If my chocolate hunk is too busy doing casework who will keep me company?" Garcia jokingly asks as we leave the conference room.

* * *

When Erin walked into the office she saw Kira standing at her desk admiring the picture Erin had kept of herself and her pupil. Smiling fondly "Admiring yourself?" came Erin's voice and Kira looked up and smiled.

"More like admiring you in the headset" Kira joked. "You ever get to do field work or are you chained to this desk?"

"It's nice to see you Roni" Erin says wrapping Kira into a hug.

"It's Kira now" Kira said as she wrapped her arms around Erin.

"It's no surprise you've changed your name, I mean look at you! Where's the graphic t-shirts and the combat boots?" Erin joked as she pulled away from the hug. It was nice to see Kira smiling. Erin had last seen Kira 3 years ago at a funeral,and Kira had not been smiling then.

"My friends kinda forced me to dress to impress" Kira said sheepishly. "I wouldn't get used to it".

"Sit and let's talk about the job" Erin says gesturing to a seat.

"Well first thanks so much for getting me this engineering job Erin, you have no idea how much this government contract will mean for my business" Kira said excitedly as she sat down.

"Kira about that, the reason I called you in wasn't a government contract" Erin says slowly.

"It wasn't?" Kira asked her mood visibly falling.

"Kira I need you to do what you do best…" Erin started to say but Kira had put the pieces together. Kira wasn't here to start a new job, Kira was here to do her old one.

"Erin you have to be joking?" Kira asked hopefully. But she knew she wasn't.

"Kira you're the only-" Erin started. She didn't Kira would be this upset.

"Erin I didn't leave my home in NYC to come here and start over with the exact same job I had decided to leave!" Kira fumed. She couldn't believe Erin would do this to her.

"Kira if you just listen to what I'm trying to ask you" Erin reasoned.

"You want me to travel across the country with some unit and hunt down criminals and serial killers! Use my oh so amazing skill of being able to track these guys down because I can understand them" Kira said. She could feel her voice getting louder. She wasn't quite to shouting but she was getting there.

"Kira I know I lied to get you here and that upsets you" Erin coaxed. While Erin's intent was to calm down Kira it did the exact opposite.

"Erin I don't think you understand! I'm not upset I'm furious! I believe that you would lie to get me to come here, offer me the only legitimate chance I had to get my company off the ground! Have me come all the way here only to have it be a hoax!" Kira was definitely shouting now.

"It's not a hoax" Erin explained. "I want to offer you a government contract as an engineer"

"Well then you should only be offering that job!" Kira argued. "Not offering me forensic psychologist position because I'm not a forensic psychologists anymore!"

"But after what happened in Uganda, no government office is gonna offer you a job" Erin defended.

"What was I supposed to do Erin? The man was dying! I stand by my actions!" Kira shouted. She was tired of people asking her why she did what she did.

"Nonetheless you wouldn't make it past the first background check" Erin pointed out. "You went AWOL-"

"That's not what I did!" Kira shouted. She slammed her hands against Erin's desk in her rage. She couldn't believe what Erin was insinuating! It's what everyone had thought she had done while she was overseas, she couldn't believe her own mentor would think so little of her.

"Roni would you please-" Erin started to say.

"Don't call me Roni!" Kira pulled her hands off Erin's desk and placed her fingers to her lip. Had she actually shouted at Erin for calling her Roni? She had and Kira immediately regretted it.

"I'm sorry" Kira said quickly. While Kira was the only one who apologized, Erin was feeling a bit of the guilt. Erin seriously regretted calling Kira Roni. Erin Strauss knew that Kira had went by Roni with her Red Cell Team. While part of the reason Kira was insistent on being called Kira was that she wanted a new start. She was pretty sure that now that Kira had returned to the states had made her realize the only person she wanted to hear call her that had been dead for almost 3 years.

"Kira the Behavioral Analysis Unit has become very troubling for the Bureau" Erin explained in a calm voice.

"That doesn't really concern me" Kira stated.

"This unit went to work on a case in which the CSI's and mixed up so much information that another person died before they could catch him" Erin elaborated.

Kira felt sick to her stomach. Had a group of CSI's actually messed up that bad? Had they tainted the science of Forensic Analyzation in the process? "Did that actually happen?"

"Yes" Erin said sadly.

"What does that have to do with me?" Kira asked with a little bit of snark.

"I want you to make sure something like that doesn't happen again"

"If you wanted someone to babysit CSI, you wouldn't have called me. Any halfwit with Forensic Analyst certification could do it" Kira hadn't left any snark out on that last comment.

"I can't just put anybody in with this team" Erin explained.

"Why not? Is the team a group of reformed serial killers hunting down other serial killers?" Kira asked sarcastically, she also added a roll of her eyes.

Erin ignored Kira's comment about the serial killers. "The team is a group of loose cannons. 2 agents on the team have already left without a specific reason, and one may have shot a man in cold blood. I also have reason to believe another team member is battling a drug addiction".

"Well then suspend him" Kira pointed out.

"I don't have enough proof" Erin stated simply. "If I did I would have already done it".

"So you want me to be a snitch? If so then maybe You don't know me" Kia stated simply. "I'm not where I am because I followed the rules".

"Where you are is fighting to clean your reputation and forget a lot of things that are worth forgetting" Erin said. Kira had already hated this meeting, but now that Erin had reminded her how messed up her personal life was she hated it even more.

"Your point?" Kira asked tapping her foot impatiently.

"This team hunts down the most prolific criminals in the country, I can't have a team of loose cannons" Erin explained. "I know you may bend the rules from time to time but you always know when to draw the line. I know that you know that when the going gets tough, the tough stays put and follows protocol".

Kira laughs a little bit at the joke. It was a phrase Kira had started saying the day she joined the CIA as a consultant. She was the worst at following that little rule.

"I think you have too much confidence in me" Kira stated.

"I don't think you have enough" Erin stated simply as she watched Kira started to tug on the necklace around her neck. Erin was no profiler but she knew how much the necklace meant to Kira.

"I can't do this job anymore Erin" Kira said in a sad voice. "I'm trying to get this company off the ground and I-"

"Kira do this for me and I can get you government contracts" Erin promised.

Kira froze when she heard those words. "Really?"

"Right now you are the agent who nearly messed up a mission, join the team clean up your reputation a bit and I can get you government contracts" Erin guaranteed.

Kira mulled it over for a bit, tugging on the necklace around her neck.

"If you were on the team, I wouldn't have to worry about the BAU that much" Erin says with a smile on her face. Kira laughed a little bit at that remark.

"You'll get me contracts?" Kira asked to which Erin responded with a nod.

"And it's not like this entire group of people is my boss right? Because that many people of authority one of them could end up dead" Kira questioned.

Erin laughed a little bit at that statement. "Technically since you are being hired as a Forensic Psychologist and not a Profiler, you have a lower rank than all of them. But no one has to tell them"

"OK I'll do it" Kira said with a clap of her hands. "But you already knew that because I bet my reinstatement papers, badge and gun are somewhere in this room"

Erin smiled. "You always were too smart for your own good".

"Only because I had a marvelous teacher" Kira said with a smile towards her mentor.

* * *

The team had been sitting at their desks working on finishing the paperwork that had been left from CSI's screw up. Spencer, Prentiss and Morgan sat in the bullpen, while Hotch was in his office. JJ was in her office going through new cases for the team.

Spencer was almost done writing his case notes, he took a sip of the coffee he had gotten from the machine. At this point the coffee was basically lukewarm sludge at some point.

Spencer's eyes burned from staring at the case work for so long. He closed the files and threw them onto the table, he pulled his glasses off his face and rubbed his eyes. This case had not doubled the amount of work they had to do, but tripled it.

Spencer dug the note out of his pocket with the flower clip. Spencer had an eidetic memory, so he had already memorized the note. But he wanted to see her handwriting again.

 _I had a lot of fun last night! :) Still wanna know my name Stretch? I wanna know yours 2!_

 _You can call me...If you're smart enough._

 _64165611212814448483296_

Spencer was stumped. He knew how to solve a lot of puzzles but he had never seen one of this structure. If she had made it up on the spot how was he supposed to figure out she didn't leave him a clue.

If she wanted to leave me a fake number she would have picked a more realistic set of numbers. So somehow these numbers would result in her actual phone number.

As Derek Morgan looked up from his paperwork and saw his coworker Dr. Spencer Reid examining a little piece of paper. Derek quietly stood up from his desk and sneaked up behind the boy genius.

"What you got there Pretty Boy?" Derek asks as he snatches the note out of Spencer's hand.

"Dude stop!" Spencer shouted as he tried to get the note back."Give it back!"

Derek read the note and a big smile of pride spread across his face.

"My man" Derek says clapping his friend on the back. Spencer swatted away his hands and makes a grab for the note but Derek manages to keep the note away from him.

"Just give it back Spencer says trying to grab the note his mystery girl gave him. Derek braces a hand against Spencer's chest and pushes him away as he reaches back with the other arm and holds the note out of his reach.

"What's going on?" Prentiss asks as she smiles at the quarreling men.

"Pretty boy here got a girls phone number" Derek calls out with a laugh.

"I don't have a phone number, I have a puzzle that will lead to a girls phone number" Spencer argued.

"Ah she's making you work for it" Derek jokes.

"Shut up" Spencer says trying to grab the note, he of course fails."Derek give it back!"

"No way let me see!" Prentiss exclaims making a grab for a note from Derek. Prentiss grabs the paper from Morgan and reads the note.

"Hey give it back Emily!" Spencer demands.

'I had fun last night, there's even a smiley face!" Emily laughed. "Oh My God Spencer what did you do?!"

"It's none of your business" Spencer stated. Spencer makes another grab for the note, this time succeeding. He stuffs the note back into his pocket, Spencer picks up the flower clip and shoves it in the pocket with the notes.

"Is that her clip Pretty Boy?" Derek asks his friend. Spencer didn't even have to look at his friend to know he was smirking.

"I can't believe the women who has stolen little Spencer's heart used the number 2 in her writing" Emily jokes

"I feel like I'm back in high school" Spencer grumbles as he slumps back in her chair.

"So are you gonna call her Pretty boy" Morgan asks ruffling her hair, Spencer almost immediately swats away his hands. Morgan walks back to his desk laughing at the genius's awkward body language. Morgan felt a weird sense of pride at his friends sexual triumph. Spencer knew it was difficult for the kid to allow physical contact, especially with strangers.

"I would if I could" Spencer mumbled.

"She makes up a puzzle on the spot that confuses a certified genius, but she can't be bothered to spell out a too?" Emily asks jokingly.

That's it! The number 2 was my clue. All the numbers were divisible by the number two. If you grouped them in a certain way you would get 10 numbers after you divided them by two several times. Spencer Couldn't believe he didn't realize it before.

"(413) 789-3326" Spencer wrote out, reciting every number as he did.

"He's cracked the code!" Emily jokingly cheers.

"Shut up!" Spencer says as he made the responsible decision to throw a pen at her.

Morgan makes kissing noises at Spencer and he doesn't stop until Garcia runs up to the group with her laptop in her hand.

"Oh baby girl did you hear Spencer here has gotten a girls number?" Morgan asks.

"While I am impressed by the Junior G-Man's game I have much more important news!" Garcia said in a rush. She placed her laptop on Spencer's desk.

"What could be more important?" Morgan asked jokingly.

"I may or may not have hacked the CIA to get the new agents file" Garcia admitted.

"Why?" Morgan inquired

"I wanted to know who she was! And they made it so easy! And there was only one Agent Wayne in the CIA that was female and had CSI training!" Garcia said in a rush. Garcia was completely aware that this was illegal but she wanted to know if this agent was dangerous. What if she got her babies into trouble?

"Do you guys know when Strauss is coming with Agent Wayne cause we have a new case?" JJ asks walking up to the group.

"Spencer got a girls number" Morgan says to JJ

"Really?" JJ exclaimed before realizing like that a comment like that would hurt Spencer's feelings.

"I'm not a complete loser you know" Spencer pointed out.

"Spence is that why you were late this morning?" JJ inquiries.

"Garcia hacked into the CIA!" Spencer blurted to divert attention from himself.

"You did what?" JJ interrogated

"I wanted to know who the new agent was" Garcia said, hoping it was enough to justify her actions. "And I didn't hack I am borrowing info" Garcia added because the previous statement did not justify her actions.

"Garcia?!" JJ exclaimed.

"Do you want to know about her or not?!" Garcia asks, clearly exasperated "You definitely want to know cause she is super interesting!"

"Just tell us already"

"Her name is Kiran Wayne, but I couldn't find a picture, but she has been working for the CIA since she was 16 as a consultant!" She says.

"16? I didn't know the CIA hired that early" Morgan says.

"They don't but she's some kind of mechanical genius" Garcia elaborates. "She has a PHD in Engineering and a work in process PHD in history….hmm seems a little unorthodox"

"I have 2 PhDs" Spencer points out.

"Yes but you were never an undercover agent for more than 40 cases!" Garcia declared.

"No way!40 cases!" Emily asked in complete shock. She moves her chair so she can get a view of the screen

"She has done long term sting operations and still has a PHD?" Morgan asks leaning to look over the screen

"Yep and Ohmygod she was trained by Strauss"

"No way!" JJ says in disbelief. She leans over Garcia to get a better look at the screen.

"Strauss has written a dozen recommendations for her, and in everyone she calls herself her mentor" Garcia explained.

"You know I can speak 16 languages too!" came a voice from behind the team.

The entire team turned around to see a girl with black curls that were forced into a very loose braid. She was dressed in a khaki skirt that had a white shirt covered in flying birds tucked into it and she was wearing a leather jacket on over the was leaning against Morgan's desk and she was standing next to Chief Strauss. At her feet was a giant silver case, with a gun and badge on top of it. Her tan face had the biggest smile on her face, she looked like she was about keel over laughing.

"But that won't be listed because I got tired of filling out that stupid biography" she says with a laugh.

"Chief Strauss" Garcia says with a sheepish nod of her head.

"Agents I'd like you to meet the newest member of your team" Chief Strauss says gesturing to the girl beside her. "Agent Kira Wayne".

Spencer stared at the smiling girl. With the tan skin, and the wild black curls. The way she smiled the way she laughed it brought back flashes of last night for Spencer. This girl wasn't just some successful CIA agent. She was Spencer's mystery girl.

Suddenly Spencer felt like puking.

* * *

As Kira stood behind the group of FBI agents as they crowded around a single laptop. She didn't know why she found it so funny that they were talking about her like she was some phenomenon. But she did.

When she spoke up and the entire team turned to look at her, she didn't look at all there faces. At first she didn't even notice him.

But then she saw his curly brown hair, and his structured cheekbones. She looked into those brown eyes and she felt her blood run cold.

Kira had seen that face before. She had woken up next to that face, she had woken up naked next to that face.

This was not the green room Kira had woken up in this morning, so she should not be seeing that face right now. But here he was, a profiler on the team she was joining.

And technically her boss.

 _"Oh god Kira what have you done?!"_ Kira thought. But while Kira was in a state of incredible panic about her current situation, she was a little happy that she had been able to call herself Kira.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: I got a favorite guys! I actually got two! And I don't think you understand how happy that makes me! A big shout out to Skipper7474 and .Lakeya, for being the first and second favorites.**

 **I am trying to think of a better title that Pretending. And I came up with the name Coping, but I think that is kinda weak. Then I came up with the name Waxing and Wayning(so it could be a pun). I almost immediately hated myself.**

 **So if anybody wants to throw out a suggestion that would be lovely.**

 **Also note. You can probably expect everyday updates until school starts for me. Which is 2 weeks from now. After that I'm thinking every week or two weeks.**

 _ **CHAPTER 4**_

Kira could feel her anxiety on the rise. Her palms were starting to sweat and her tongue felt dry. She wanted to run away and hide in a corner somewhere in the large facility. Preferably in the lab that Erin had given Kira for her analysis job, because she knew no one would come in there and no one would see her as hysterical as she felt.

She knew that if she had a panic attack right here and now, someone would shoot her. And if instead they tried their best to calm her down, well then Kira would have to kill herself instead of living with that embarrassment

Kira started tugging on her necklace and took a deep breath, careful to keep the big smile on her face present through this entire stressful ordeal. She was in a roomful of profilers and she would not let them know anything!

"I'll leave you to make nice" Erin says. "I'll also pretended I didn't hear them reading off your file"

 _"No! Don't leave me! How could you do this to me!"_ Kira thought desperately, hoping her mentor had suddenly developed the power to read her mind.

"I'll see you later Erin!" Kira said as chipper as ever. Erin pats her on the shoulder before she leaves the bullpen, leaving Kira in a room filled with stranger.

Well actually she knew one person in the room. She knew him very well.

 _"God stop thinking of him like that!"_ Kira thought.

What was the chances of Kira's one night stand showing up at her place of work as her boss? She actually knew the chances, there was a .00000175% chance that something like this could even occur. But that was unimportant.

 _"You know what, maybe if I pretend he's not there he'll disappeared"_ Kira planned. It wasn't a very good plan, but it was a plan nonetheless.

"Hi there my name is Dr. Wayne...I mean Agent Wayne...But you can call me Kira" Kira said in an awkward rush of words. "Dammit Kira! Be calm!" Kira scolded as she stuck out her hand for someone to shake.

The team doesn't react to her outstretched hand. Derek Morgan is the first to close the gap between the two and roughley shake her hand.

"Derek Morgan" he says as he shakes her hand.

"I'm Emily Prentiss" Prentiss introduced standing up from her spinny chair so she could shake the new agent's hand.

"I'm the communications liaison Jennifer Jareau you can call me JJ if you want" JJ said. She shook the girls hand as she tried to balance all the files in her hand on her hip. Kira without saying a word took some of the files off her pile so she would have an easier time carrying them.

"And this is our tech analyst Penelope Garcia" Derek said, introducing the analyst with a gesture that was like him showing off a prized object. Kira had forgotten his name, but she was sure it rhymed with Craig.

"Were you reading off my CIA file?" Kira asked the blonde tech analyst as she hook her hand.

"We weren't looking you up or anything! I mean we were given that file!" Garcia said in a rush. "Please don't get me fired!"

"Are you kidding me?! Kira exclaimed."You hacked in to the CIA! That's amazing! I should know I built some of these firewalls!" Kira moves to stare at Garcia's laptop's screen. She scrolls through her file, and was amazed to see the entire thing here.

Kira made the realization that she was standing next to her hook up and in response her heart rate sped up. She scrolls through her file, and was amazed to see the entire thing here.

As her fingers moved for the keyboard Spencer moved his away, wanting to avoid touching her.

 _"What was she doing here? Did she not remember me? Or was she being casual? Should I be casual? I should definitely be casual!"_ Spencer thought as he placed his hands in his lap. He pushed his rolly chair away from her and he kept his hands folded on his lap and tried to block out the scent of nutmeg and coffee she was emitting.

 _"Smell was the weakest sense if I keep breathing like normal eventually it would go away"_ Spencer reminded himself of that fact.

"You're not mad?" Garcia asked hesitantly.

"Why would I be mad? I think it's bloody brilliant!" Kira said excitedly. "The last tech analyst was a pain in my ass, could barely hack his way out of a cardboard box!"

"But you Omygosh! This is freaking cool, you can actually edit my profile! It's nice to know the government has start hiring more geniuses rather than people who were able to buy their way to a diploma" Kira said with clear admiration of Garcia's work.

"Thanks!" Garcia said glowing with a sense of pride. While the team thanked her for her work everyday, a person she barely knew was able to tell that she had blatantly called her genius in her field.

Well at least Garcia thought she barely knew her, there was something Eerily familiar about the girl.

"Have we met before?" Garcia asks Kira based on her hunch. "I feel like I've seen you before"

Spencer saw Kira's big smile for a second and then go straight back to smiling. Very obvious indication that she was hiding something, probably related to her past.

Spencer mentally scolded himself for studying her behavior, she was a member of the team and they all had made a pact not to do that.

"I don't think I have ever met anyone with style like you so I don't think so" Kira says with her ever so continuing smile.

"She's so Nice" Garcia exclaimed in a hushed whisper to Morgan. But Kira had heard every word and she let out an internal sigh when she realized her cover had not been blown.

"I think you missed our other resident genius" Agent Morgan said pointing to Spencer. Kira gave Spencer a look that he couldn't entirely describe. It was a mix of fear, regret, realization and something else. But before Spencer could decipher it she went back to smiling.

"Oh I almost completely missed you! And you are?" Kira asked as casually as she could. She held out a hand towards the man with the angular face and brown curls. Those brown eyes were looking at her was not the same desire she had seen the night before.

"I'm Dr Spencer Reid" Spencer said with an awkward wave.

 _"Also known as my hook up"_ Kira thought.

* * *

"Do you not shake hands?" Kira asked casually as she pulled her hand away. Kira had decided she liked the name Spencer on him. Spencer was the name of the drummer in Panic! at the Disco. It was also the name of Spencer Spook the ghost in an old comic book.

But this Spencer wasn't a drummer or a ghost, he was a doctor.

"The number of pathogens passed during a handshake is actually rather high, it's actually safer-" Spencer recited.

"To kiss, I'm friends with the professor who wrote that journal" Kira finished for Spencer. "I mean I know I lived in Europe for a while but I don't think I'm gonna kiss you".

Kira wished she hadn't said that, because now she was thinking of kissing. Which meant she was thinking about the last time she kissed someone. Which was last night and it was with the doctor right in front of her.

"Yeah that would be unprofessional!" Spencer said in a muted sarcastic voice. He was sure it wasn't evident that he was being sarcastic to his team. But Kira had caught it and it made her flush. But with her tan skin it was almost unnoticeable.

'Is the new agent here?" Hotch called out as he walked down the stairs to our group in the center.

"Hi there you must be the Unit Chief" Kira says. "Agent Kiran Wayne, you can call me Kira"

"Aaron Hotchner, we don't really have time to make nice" Aaron says holding out an intimidating hand for her to shake. Kira takes it and experiences a very firm and slightly scary handshake. "Do you have a go bag?"

"In my car" Kira stated. Which was a lie, but she did have one packed at home. She was sure Audrey and Mabel could bring it to her. She just didn't want to say no because it seemed like Aaron Hotchner really needed her to have a go bag.

"Good we are gonna need you for our case, wheels up in 30, you'll be briefed on the plane" Hotchner order as he heads out of the building.

"Where are we going?" Spencer asked as he stood up quickly. He picked up his satchel and followed the rest of the team and Kira out of the building.

"Taylor Landing, Texas" Hotchner stated as they boarded the elevators.

* * *

Kira had called Audrey and asked her to bring her go bag to the Airport. She also asked Audrey to bring her a change of clothes since she couldn't go into the field in a skirt.

Audrey had complied and was waiting outside the airport when Kira arrived, May was nowhere to be seen. Kira assumed Mabel was at either the apartment or hotel studying for her BAR exam, and was too busy to bring Kira clothes.

Kira's time in New York had left her with an ability to speed and move through crowded streets without getting a ticket. So she had gotten to the airport far before the rest of the team.

"Here's your stuff" Audrey said holding out a black duffle bag. She was also holding a pair of green corduroy pants and a pair of brown leather combat boots.

"Did you take anything out?" Kira asked. She knew Audrey well enough to know that she was obsessed with fixing Kira's lack of a fashion sense. Ever since they were little and every chance she got, Kira had suffered through years of torture. Mostly involving Audrey forcing her into dresses and messing with her go bag. And now that Audrey was a fancy fashion designer or executive(Kira wasn't sure what Audrey did anymore) she had twice as many opportunities because she always had clothes she could spare.

"No I didn't" Audrey stated. "I promise. You seemed a little stressed on the phone and I didn't want to stress you out some more with a skirt".

Kira grabbed the pants from Audrey and hopped back into the cab of her truck, another skill Kira had picked up was being able to change in a car.

"The guy I slept with last night, he's at my job" Kira blurted as she kicked off the heels. They clattered onto the asphalt.

"He followed you?" Audrey asked clearly confused.

"No he works there!"Kira elaborated as she closed the truck door and undid the belt and zipper that held the skirt around her waist.

"You idiot!" Audrey shouts through the car door. "I told you sleeping with him was a bad idea"

"You told me after I had slept with him" Kira pointed out as she wiggled into the corduroy pants. She ran a thin brown belt through the belt loops and holstered her gun to the belt at her hip. Once she had changed out of the skirt and properly fastened the belt she opened the door of the truck.

"How was I supposed to know he worked for the FBI?" Kira argued as she opened the door. Audrey gave her a look as she held out the boots for Kira to put on. Kira grabbed the right boot and slid it on her foot, following the same action for the right.

"The same time you found out his name...Wait you didn't do that either" Audrey said. Kira rolled her eyes at that comment. She focused intently on tying her boots. She found comfort in the simple action

"Just tell me what I should do Audrey, cause I don't know how to deal with these thing" Kira said slowly.

"OK here is what you do you don't say a thing about it, pretend it never happened" Audrey instructed.

"Is that it?" Kira asked hesitantly

"Yes don't screw this up" Audrey clarified

"I think screwing up is in my genetic code" Kira stated.

"I thought you were a scientist, think you could cure that" Audrey asked jokingly.

"Why am I friends with you? You know I'm an engineer!" Kira exclaimed with a laugh.

"Oh right I bought this for you" Audrey says digging into her pocket. She pulls out a small giraffe rubber ball that usually resides on Kira's bedside table. Kira was a bit confused. The little ball was one of Kira's main comfort objects and while she was stressed she didn't need the ball.

"You do realize you are about to get on a plane" Audrey pointed out.

Kira's blood runs cold. She had spent so much time worrying about the whole one night stand thing she had completely forgotten she had agreed to get on a plane.

Kira had three fears, though Kira would never call them fears. They were things that made Kira incredibly uncomfortable. Those three things were snakes, clowns and flying.

Kira hated flying. She avoided it throughout most of her career on the red cell team. Traveling over land whenever possible and getting incredibly intoxicated when she couldn't.

She was pretty sure she couldn't get drunk right now.

"If your gonna puke do it now" Audrey ordered.

"I'm gonna puke" Kira says rushing to the benches as what was left of her breakfast traveled back up her esophagus and into the bushes.

Audrey rolled her eyes at her hot mess of a best friend as she walked to hold her hair away from her face.

"I brought gum" Audrey stated.

"You are the be-" Kira get out before she lurches back towards the bushes.

"I know I am sweetie" Audrey says rubbing her back.

"I have to go" Kira groaned as she stood up. Kira wiped her mouth as she picked her go bag up off the ground.

"Roni don't screw this up!" Audrey cautioned Kira as she held out the little giraffe ball and a pack of Extra gum. She wrapped her arms tightly around Kira.

"Stop calling me Roni!" Kira said as she wiggled herself out of Audrey's arms and dashed for the doors of the airport.

"Be safe!" Audrey called after her.

"Never!" Kira called back as her black, curly head ducked through the doors of the airport. Audrey was always worried about Kira, she had been since the day they had met. But back then Kira wasn't mentally unstable, emotionally fragile and possessed a gun. Now she was all of those things, and she was also gonna be on a plane.

Audrey made a cross over her chest. _"God help her"_

* * *

Kira used to be the worst at dealing with her anxiety. But she had gotten better at it over the years, developing a bunch of little actions and gathering a bunch of things that calmed Kira down whenever she was on the verge of an attack.

The giraffe ball and keeping her mind a busy as possible was what was keeping Kira calm on this plane ride to Texas.

"So what's going on in Taylor Landing?" Prentiss asked as JJ handed her a file. Kira was intently chewing on a piece of gum. It was spearmint, Kira hated spearmint. But she would do anything to get the taste of puke out of her mouth. Plus Mint was a known relaxant.

"There are about 230 people in Taylor Landing and one those people is a serial killer" JJ explains.

"Small town" Morgan stated as he flipped through the file.

"Very, but in the last two weeks 4 women have been killed all with the same MO" JJ explained.

"Strangulation?" Prentiss asks.

"By the looks of the photos I'd say blood loss, he sliced straight through the carotid artery" Spencer pointed out.

Spencer had realized Kira had changed. She was no longer wearing the skirt and heel, but was instead wearing a pair of green pants and combat boots. The gun that had been resting on the silver case was now holstered to a thin brown belt. He had also noticed the small ball in her hand that she was rolling across her fingers.

Spencer didn't want to be watching her. But he was. But it wasn't because of the fact that he knew how she looked without clothes on, that fact had just made him feel incredibly uncomfortable. But Kira had taken off her jacket and now Spencer could see an array of scars littering her right arm.

The scars were small and irregular and spanned from the center of her neck to the middle of her arm. Spencer couldn't remember if he had seen the scars the night before. Alcohol messed with Spencer's memory, which is why he preferred not to drink. He vaguely remembered seeing a scar behind her ear at one point.

Where had those scars come from?

"Whatever he used to strangle them was too thin and it broke the skin" Kira said and Spencer snaps back to the case. "I can't tell how thick, my autopsy report is missing the measurements of the wound"

"Mine doesn't have them either" Spencer added looking her for the first time directly in the eye. Spencer felt a heat rush to his face the moment their eyes met.

Kira looked back down at the files she had been flipping through after they had made eye contact. She chewed on her lower lip as she flipped through the files.

"That's basic practice" Kira mentioned. She places the little giraffe ball on the table to use both of her hands to flip through the file. She missed the comfort the little giraffe gave her, but if she kept herself busy she should be semi-calm.

"Where is the tox report?" Kira inquired as she shuffles through the papers.

"We don't have them" JJ stated.

"I don't think this guy knows what he's doing" Kira stated still sorting through the files. She had already found multiple error not only in the incomplete autopsy but also in the CSI investigations.

"Without an accurate autopsy how do we know he tried to strangle them but ended up killing them?" Kira wondered aloud.

"That maybe be the reason he is killing people so quickly, a quick kill may not satisfy him" Morgan reasoned.

"But you think he'd figure it out after the first or second body" Emily pointed out.

"Could mean he's not very smart" Hotch argued.

"Or maybe he meant to cut their throats" Emily said.

"There are easier ways to do it than with a wire" Spencer articulated. "I mean it will eventually get the job done but you have to be applying enough force and at a very certain angle"

"You don't have a number ?' Prentiss jokes. The boy genius usually provided exact numbers with his facts.

".05 PSI and at an angle of 75. 43 degrees" Roni stated on impulse. The team turns to look at her as Kira looked up. She realized she had done that thing where she stated a weird fact and everyone became really confused.

"Oh was that rhetorical?" Kira asked apologetically as she gently balances her fingers on the giraffe ball.

The team looks to Spencer to confirm to see if the answer was right.

"She's right" Spencer said quickly.

".05 PSI is a good punch in the face, so our guy is strong. And the angle isn't that hard to achieve if you were taller or shorter than them. I can't be sure from the picture but I think the cuts are angled" Kira says as she turns the picture of the bloody cut upside down. The picture was blurry and titled. "Which could mean height difference"

"Or that he got the better of the women" Spencer argued.

"I don't get it if he was tried to strangle them, he didn't do a very good job, if he was trying to cut their throats he didn't do a very good job. What exactly was the unsub trying to do?" Morgan asked.

"Whatever it is, the fact that this unsub has such a short cooling off period cannot possibly be a good thing" Hotch finishes. "When we land JJ and I will go get set up at the sheriff's office

"Deputies are waiting at the latest crime scene" JJ adds.

"Morgan, Prentiss and Wayne head to the crime scene" Hotch orders.

"These autopsies are missing too much for us to even use them, if I went to the crime scene I wouldn't be able to pull much information" Kira says. "These other CSI reports show clear missteps"

"The latest victim hasn't been autopsied yet" JJ stated.

"Is there any way I could meet with the doctor before he does it?" Kira asks "I'll be able to get much more information if I can fix this autopsy mess. I retract my earlier statement of me thinking he didn't know what he doing, I know he doesn't".

"Ok, Reid and Wayne will head to the coroner's office if he hasn't started the autopsy" Hotch dictates.

"I'll call the coroner and see if I can him from doing the autopsy" JJ says as she starts dialing numbers on her phone.

'Thank you Miss Jareau" Kira said as she throws the file on the table and the giraffe ball rolls down the table. Kira makes a desperate grab for it but it rolls off the table and into Spencer's lap.

Spencer picks up the small toy and holds it out for her. "Thanks" Kira says taking it quickly and holding it to her chest.

"The corner is gonna hold off until you guys get there" JJ said as she sat back down.

"You ready to see a dead body Gumby?" Kira asked sarcastically.

Kira is playing with a gold chain around her neck while clutching the little ball in her other hand, a clear sign of nervous energy. It was like she was a afraid of being left alone with me.

"Did you just call me Gumby?" Spencer ask confused. "After the 1990's claymation character"

"I'm sorry" she says quickly. "I have a thing for nicknames" she has an apologetic smile plastered on her face. But Spencer didn't think she was very sorry.

"Ha!" Morgan laughs after hearing the nickname. "Gotta admit Pretty Boy it suits you"

"Please don't call me that" Spencer asked Kira nicely. "Also please don't call me Pretty boy" Spencer adds quickly.

"I kinda like Pretty Boy better" she jokes with a shy smile. Spencer didn't feel awkward or uncomfortable smiling at her in this moment. Instead Spencer felt like she could be a very interesting person to get to know.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:I met my daily update requirement! Yay! But I also came up with another title idea, which is Old Habits die Hard. And I really like that one! So I changed it!**

 **Also there was another favorite so I thought I would give them a shout. So shout out to cathrineoriginal**

 **So I hope no one gets confused.**

 ** _CHAPTER 5_**

When the team had landed in city right outside of Taylor Landing, the team split up into 3 separate black sedans. It hadn't taken much to get Dr. Reid to let Kira drive. It honestly took nothing, he tossed Kira the keys.

The two sat in the car in deafening awkward silence, it went on for a long time. A very long time, and it was nerve racking. Kira was afraid to do anything, even turn on the radio. Which was a shame because Kira loved the radio.

Kira was tapping her fingers against the wheel to the beat of Bohemian Rhapsody. She wasn't the biggest fan of Queen, but her father was. She had grown up hearing the songs on repeat in the car and in her living room.

"Are you reciting poetry?" came Spencer's voice.

"Am I?" Kira asks looking towards him. Spencer has a confused look on his face.

"I think so" Spencer said.

"It's probably Silverstein" Kira said waving it off. "It's just a thing I do".

"Silverstein?" Spencer inquired.

"You don't know who Shel Silverstein is?" Kira exclaimed. "Where the sidewalk ends? You don't know what that is?"

"Should I?" Spencer inquiries.

"He writes children's poetry, Where the Sidewalk Ends is one of his books. It's my favorite!" Kira exclaims.

"Never heard of it" Spencer states.

"You are missing out Gumby!" Kira states.

Spencer nods to himself, soaking in that bit of information about Kira. The night before she talked about Arthurian Myth and Quantum Mechanics, but her favorite book was a book of Children's poetry. It showed Kira had a good childhood.

"I don't think I have a favorite book" Spencer stated. After that the conversation in the car disappeared. Spencer focused on the files in his lap, even though he had already memorized the files. Kira focused on driving and reminding herself not to say a thing about the elephant in the room..Well technically it was a car.

 _"I don't mention a thing, I just pretend I didn't sleep with the attractive male doctor sitting next to me. I can do that, I am great at acting"_ Kira thought.

That was a lie. Kira was a terrible actor, she had dated an actor once though. That should count for something! Well she didn't really date him, she was just very promiscuous with him.

We pull up at a red light and Kira's tapping had gotten a lot faster and against Kira's better judgment, she had decided to say something.

"Why didn't you tell me you were in the BAU!?" Kira shouted as she slammed her fist into Spencer's shoulder.

"Why did you hit me!?" Spencer asked rubbing his shoulder. Spencer was sure he would get a bruise, because the punch had really hurt. Kira was glad it really hurt, that was her intention

"Because you didn't tell me you were in the BAU!" Kira justified hitting him again, this time not as hard. But Spencer still thought it was pretty hard.

"You didn't even want to know my name last night, let alone where I worked" Spencer argued.

"Still!" Kira screamed. "We could get fired for this"

"Actually we would only be reprimanded" Spencer pointed out.

"You don't understand that's not all that would happen" Kira said. She focused on choosing words that would make the statement vague but forceful. The last thing Kira wanted Spencer, or anyone for that matter was that Kira had a lot riding on this job.

"I know that you're hiding something" Spencer stated, which led Kira to bite her lip. "It most likely has something to do with your background or family"

"What makes you say that?" Kira asks nonchalantly.

"When Garcia said she recognized you this morning, you negatively reacted" Spencer reasoned.

"You already know what you need to know about me" Kira stated as she turned the car into the parking lot of the coroner's office. "If my family or my background suddenly become imperative to this job, you'll know"

As Kira parked the sedan in the a parking spot closest to the coroner's office.

"I'd appreciate it if you never brought up my personal life during a case ever again" Kira said as she pulled the keys out the ignition.

"Does that include what happened last nigh-?" Spencer started to ask, mostly as a joke. Kira did not take that as a joke and she was quick to cut him off.

"Especially that" Kira hissed. As she climbed out of the car and walked into the was taken abakc by her hostile behavior, but it motivated Spencer to stay right on her heels as they walked into the coroners office.

* * *

"Here she is. Mallory Evans 21" The coroner says as we walked into the autopsy room.

"Wonderful" Kira said as she walked into the room that reeked of antiseptic. A frail female body was laying on a metal table with a white sheet over it. She had blonde hair and long eyelashes. The blonde hair made Kira think of her blond best friend, even though Audrey's hair color came from a bottle.

"4 years" Kira whispered.

"What?" the corner asked.

"She's only 4 years younger than me" Kira stated.

"It's very sad, I knew Mallory very well. This girl had a set of pipes that you would not believe!" the coroner boasted.

Kira's eyes quickly glances over the body. The corner had said he had already examined the body. She had remembered that this preliminary report had said there were no other wounds other than the cut across the girls throat. But Kira count 3 contusions on Mallory's body. All 3 on her shoulders, probable defensive wounds.

Kira quickly looked to Spencer tapping the girls shoulder hopping her would see the bruises and put the pieces together.

Spencer had picked up what Kira was trying to do. He saw the bruises and made the connection that the corner had not documented them.

"Should we get started Agent.." the corner trailed off.

"Oh sorry we never introduced ourselves, I'm Agent Wayne and this is Dr. Reid" Kira said pointing to herself and then Spencer when she said his name.

"Did you check for evidence of rape?" Spencer asked.

"No it wouldn't have done much good" the coroner said.

"Why not?" Kira asked with a clearly false smile. Spencer noted she was grinding her teeth.

"She was quite a promiscuous girl, wouldn't be able to tell the difference" the coroner justified. A justification that shocked Spencer and Kira as well. It probably bothered Kira more than it bother Spencer, because Kira's teeth grinding got louder.

"Please begin" Kira stated with a wave of her hand.

The corner positioned the blade below the clavicle and Kira immediately spoke up.

"Get out!" she ordered.

"Excuse me?" the corner asked confused. "You can't kick me out"

"Maybe I can't, I don't know" Kira admitted. "You want to know what I do know? That your dissection on this woman's body won't allow us to see if there is damage to the upper lobes of the lung, or properly break open the rib cage. I know that you have not properly examined the body because your preliminary reports are missing the bruises on her shoulder. You did not check for evidence of rape".

"You have 30 seconds to leave this room I will report all of these very clear missteps and I will personally sue you for malpractice and maybe obstruction of justice" Kira way she said it had scared Spencer, and he had done nothing wrong. It had a similar aura to when Hotch used his lawyer tactics in interrogation rooms, but Hotch was certainly more threatening than Kira. But she had said it with enough force a that visible shivers ran through the coroner before he stormed out of the room in a fit of rage.

"Do you know how to do an autopsy?" Kira asked as she undid the braid in her hair. She shook out her braid and pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail.

"Yes" Spencer answered quickly.

"So do I" Kira stated. She pulled a pair of gloves from the box and held them out for Spencer "I'll call a professional if another body drops but I think we can handle this one" .

"Sounds like a plan" Spencer said with a nod as he grabbed the gloves from Kira and then he went in search of Aprons to keep their clothes clean.

* * *

Morgan and Prentiss arrived at the crime scene at the exact moment Reid and Wayne were in the body cavity of Mallory Evans. The crime scene was behind the dumpster of a small abandoned warehouse.

Windows were broken in and the walls were covered in a crawling ivy. But for the most part the lot was clear of litter, barring the occasional soda can and Lays bag.

Morgan and Prentiss approached the pair of deputies that were standing in a small square of crime scene tape. They ducked under the yellow crime scene tape.

"Agents Morgan and Prentiss" Morgan introduced with a shake of the deputies hand.

"Deputy Hannon and this is Deputy Sherwood" the deputy said as he shook Morgan and Prentiss hands.

"The body was just here?" Prentiss asked Hannon gesturing to the area. She noted the stains of blood on the concrete "Nothing covering the body?"

"No a couple of kids found the body. It was just laying here"Deputy Hannon said.

"How many people come out here?" Morgan asked examining the blood on the asphalt. There was too much blood on the ground for this to be the asphalt. So this wasn't the dump site.

"Its frequented by a lot of the kids, not a lot of hangouts here" Deputy Sherwood explained.

"A place that has regular traffic and this is where the unsub decides to kill someone?" Morgan wonders aloud.

"Maybe he doesn't care who sees" Prentiss adds.

"All the other bodies were found on this lot" Sherwood states.

"How big is the lot?" Morgan asks.

"About a 2 miles, 2 miles and a half" Sherwood answers. "But one of the bodies was found in the backwoods and those stretch out for acres".

"This area must be a part of his comfort zone" Prentiss states.

"I think we have enough bodies to work a geographical profile if we find out the abduction site, I'll check in with Reid and Wayne" Morgan says. "Let's head to the station and update Hotch".

* * *

Spencer Reid's phone rang as he was finishing up the extraction of a urine sample from Mallory Evans.

The two were dressed in plastic apron with white masks over their faces. While the masks did very little for the smell of a dead body, they were obligated to wear them. In the hour and half they had been here they managed to determine that the woman had not been raped, which would surely help with the profile. They had also began examining her inner organs.

He set aside the syringe and pulled off one of his gloves. He threw the glove in a hazardous waste bin and looked at his caller ID. When he saw the name Morgan blink across the screen he answered the phone.

"What's up Morgan" he answered as he picked up the phone. He pulled off his other glove and discarded it along with the other.

"So did you call her?" Morgan asked through the phone.

"Call who?" Spencer asked confused.

"The flower clip girl" Morgan chuckled. Instinctively Spencer's hand went to the pocket that had the flower and the note in it. Spencer had almost forgotten that Morgan had harassed him this morning about the note.

"Morgan we are on a case" Spencer argued.

"Come on Pretty Boy" Morgan chattered.

"I don't think I'm gonna call her"Spencer stated as he looked towards Kira. She was weighing the liver and had her back to him.

"Why not?" Morgan asked confused.

"I have reason to believe that she isn't interested in going on a date with me" Spencer respond smoothly. Which was an honest, but extremely vague statement. After the way Kira had asked Spencer to never speak about the night they had spent together, why would he think she wanted to go out with him.

And while this fact upset Spencer he would get over it, a relationship between colleagues was unprofessional and would surely interfere with his work.

"Wait I'm putting you on Speaker" Morgan stated.

"No don't put me on speaker" Spencer demanded. But Morgan ignored him and put the phone on speaker anyway.

"Emily the kid isn't gonna call the flower clip girl" Morgan explained to Prentiss, catching her up to speed on the conversation.

"Why not?" Emily queried.

"Guy this isn't really the time to be talking about this" Spencer stressed. "I have an autopsy-"

"He doesn't think she'd be interested in going on a date with him?" Morgan continued, completely ignoring Reid.

"What! Why? Spencer's a catch" Emily teased.

"Thank you so much for that boost of confidence" Spencer said.

"No but seriously why?" Emily asked.

"I think our careers would come into conflict" Spencer answered, providing yet another, vague but honest answer. The fact that they worked in the same FBI unit would be an extreme conflict.

"She left you her number right" Emily interrogated

"Yeah" Spencer stated.

"And you liked her right?" Emily asked. Spencer looked towards Kira. She certainly didn't look like the girl he had met last night dressed in the plastic aprons, and she had seemed carefree the night before, she was extremely focused now.

"Yes" Spencer answered again despite Kira's hostile attitude. While she was being incredibly hostile right now, she had been anything but the night before.

"Well then she'd be interested, who cares about our schedules. It's not like you're asking her to marry you. Just take her on one date for coffee or something." Emily advised.

"I'll think about it. Now did you call with relevant information or did you call just to bother me" Spencer questioned trying his hardest to change the subject.

"I wanted to know if you could make a geographic profile with the 4 kill sites?" Morgan asked.

"You know I'd need the abduction sites" Spencer pointed out.

"Maybe I called in to see how you were doing with Agent Wayne" Morgan suggested.

"Agent Wayne is gonna yell at me if I don't get back to helping her" Reid replied.

"You are absolutely right" Kira stated loud enough for Morgan to hear at the end of the line. He chuckled at that Kira's one liner.

"Well we're headed to the station, meet us there when you're done" Morgan said just before he hung up.

"What was that about?" Kira asked as Spencer grabbed a new set of gloves.

"Oh Morgan just had some questions about the geographical profile" Spencer said as he pulled on a new pair of gloves. It was another vague but honest answer.

"Well could you measure the stomach, and the intestines?" Kira asked as she was reattaching the liver. Spencer set to work doing what she asked.

They worked in silence for a long time. Kira was completely aware she was humming to herself to fill in the silence. This time the song was not by Queen, but instead a jazz song by Miles Davis.

"It's been a long time since I've been elbow deep in a body cavity" Kira asserted, after she had made the decision to have some conversation. She looked up from her task of examining the lungs. "What about you?"

"My 2nd year at MIT" Spencer answered. "What about you?"

"I snuck in on a Harvard Med Classes all the time" Kira responded. She remembered doing that, she had eventually been caught, but no serious trouble had come to her.

"You went to Harvard?" Spencer inquired. Kira noted that he was impressed.

"I went to College at 16 so I wanted to stay close to home, Harvard was close to home" Kira stated. She had loved Boston, but she hasn't looked back when she had moved to New York City to attend Columbia.

"I went to college at 14" Spencer said offhandedly with a small awkward smile.

"Show off" Kira mocks.

"So I was thinking" Spencer stammered. "Maybe after this we could get some coffee or something".

Kira froze for a second inside the body. But she quickly began moving through the body again.

"I thought we had agreed, that us going on a date would be a bad idea" Kira said slowly.

"Just one date wouldn't be such a bad thing, it's not like we are getting married" Spencer justified, stealing just a little bit of Prentiss's argument.

"Just drop it Dr. Reid"Kira warned. "Dating and work don't mix, it's like oil and water".

"Actually if you shake a mixture of oil and water, eventually you can break down the bonds that hold the oil together. Allowing oil and water to mix" Spencer stated.

"Can we stop talking about it, it wasn't even that big of a deal" Kira asserted as she forcefully put her tools down on the table beside her.

"Not that big of a deal?" Spencer asked. Kira could hear the hurt resonating in his voice.

"Mallory here definitely had her throat cut there isn't even the slightest asphyxiation damage" Kira stated, trying to change the subject. She had just made for another awkward road trip.

"Well that's one question answered" Spencer said, his voice sounded slightly pained.

"At least she went quickly, sliced carotid she would have bled out in less than a minute" Kira states."Did you measure the wound?"

"Based on the length and the depth of the wound I calculated that it was caused by a wire .018 inches thick" Spencer responded.

"Where did he find a wire that thick?The thinnest garrote every made was .5 inches thick" Kira wondered out loud.

"I don't know, but it probably plays into how he chooses his victims" Spencer explained.

"Well if it has anything to do with their talents, the coroner was right about one thing Mallory does have impressive Lung Capacity" Kira made known. Kira's eyes traveled down to Mallory's hands, her fingers were calloused. Kira had seen calluses like that before.

"She played guitar too" Kira pointed out.

"How do you know?" Spencer inquired. He was avoiding eye contact with her, Kira was mistaken the awkwardness would begin now.

"Her fingers. These calluses they come from pressing against a guitar's fretboard, she played left handed gui-" Kira stopped thinking. A thought had bubbled to the surface in the back of her mind.

"You know what?" Kira mused.

"What?" Spencer asked.

"A heavy gauged guitar string is .018 inches thick" Kira stated.

* * *

Morgan and Prentiss had arrived at the sheriff's station to find JJ and Hotch had been pinning things to the boards the sheriff's office had provided.

After Morgan and Prentiss had returned from the crime scene and relayed all the information they had picked up from the crime scene. How the area had a lot of foot traffic, mostly from local kids. How there had been nothing covering the body?

JJ was pinning before and after pictures of victims as Morgan and Prentiss relayed the information. JJ had made one connection between all the victim, all of the victims were pretty, blonde, and well loved.

JJ had spent most of her time at the station talking to the latest victim family. Mallory Evan's family had been completely distraught. They blamed themselves, as most parents did in this situation.

JJ hated talking to the victim's family. She had done it so many times, but it still killed her to watch mothers and fathers cry over their lost children. It would make anyone sad. But talking to the victim's family gave important information about victimology.

JJ snapped back to conversation. The team was bouncing ideas off of each other.

"So we know these people are victims of opportunity, since JJ said Mallory had just come back from Houston to visit" Hotch says to no one in particular. There was that important information that had come from talking to the victim's family.

"We know our unsub isn't afraid to get caught?" Prentiss added.

"But what we don't know is how our unsub met these women and what was it they did that made them victims" Morgan verbalized.

Morgan's phone rings and he was quick to pick up. He knew it was probably his saucy tech analyst.

"What's up mama?" Morgan says into the phone as soon as he picks up.

"So I think I found a connection to all of your victims" Garcia says. "Besides being blonde, and gorgeous, like one very skilled tech analyst"

"Were they also as good with their hands?" Morgan joked.

"Maybe on a musical keyboard, all 4 women played an instrument of some sort" Garcia explained.

"Could be our connection" Prentiss said.

"Had the women ever met before?" Hotch asked.

"Oh definitely, the town's so small everyone knew each other. But as far as I can tell there isn't one distinct area that the 4 women went to that could have made them a target" Garcia explained.

"The autopsy is done and I have discovered that the coroner needs to be reported" Kira said throwing her jacket over the back of a chair.

"Wayne has a theory" Spencer announced as he walked into the room.

"What's the theory?" Hotch inquired.

"It's not very good theory, it's just a thought" Kira said hesitantly.

"Anything is better than nothing" Prentiss said encouragingly.

"Mallory Evans played guitar and the measurements of her neck laceration say that the wound was made by .018 thick wire" Kira stated.

"And?" Morgan asked.

"The second string of a acoustic guitar is that thick, if it's the heaviest gauge" Kira elaborated.

"You think they were choked by a guitar string?" Prentiss asked.

"Actually we determined the cause of death on Mallory Evans was blood loss" Spencer pointed out.

"Why would someone need a heavier gauged guitar string" Hotch inquired.

"Performance mainly, it forces the sound to travel farther" Kira explained.

"Garcia search music stores in the area for stores that sell that kind of guitar string, and find out if any of the 4 women went to any of them" Hotch dictates.

"If they even thought about guitar strings I'll find out, I'll hit you back when I know something" Garcia says as she hangs up the phone.

"Nice catch Wayne" Hotch congratulates as he turns back to the board.

"Thank me if it pans out" Kira said sitting down and grabbing a file from the center of the table. She doesn't say another thing to the team for the rest of the time. She just sat and read the files and fixed any errors that were present.

But JJ did catch Spencer and Agent Wayne trading looks from across the room. He was twirling a little flower clip in his hands. JJ's mind traveled back to the morning, where Morgan had told her Spencer had gotten a girl's number, he had also been late this morning. Which never happened.

JJ watched the way he was watching Agent Wayne and a thought popped into JJ's head, that JJ couldn't believe was true.

Was Agent Wayne the girl who had given Spencer her number? Which would mean she and Spencer might have-!

JJ caught Spencer's eyes and his face melted into a smile, he waved at her before turning back to his files. JJ knew Spence well enough to know that he would not instigate any fights with new coworkers, or anyone for that matter.

Something had definitely happened between the two, but what?


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:**

 **New title change. Wow I guess I wasn't really attached to the old new one...Wait did I type that right? I think I did.**

 **Anyway this title idea was given to me by Skipper7474, so she is awesome.**

 **I know I promised every day updates but I made this chapter pretty long, and it took a while to write and terribly edit. I also did a lot of research for this chapter. Plus there were a lot of important things I had to sort out in this chapter. Also there is a profile in here, and I wanted to a do a good job on it. But I don't know if what I wrote makes sense. I tried though.  
**

 **We have 7 new favorites since my last update! A huge hug goes out to those people KFBowman, Prongs131, Hadrianlopez1, Charlie. , Purple44, DakuJoo-Hela and Lena161. Actually I hate hugs, so you guys get a cookie or something cause I am very good at baking.  
**

 **(Warning there is no actual cookie. Sorry for being a dirty liar)**

 **I also want to give a shout out to JadedNightingale2308 because she asked me to help her plan out a fanfiction while also telling me how much she like mine. Which just makes me really happy, so she gets a shout out. I am very excited to work with her.**

 **I wanna make a shout out to sonnetStar for providing me with some constructive criticism.**

 **That was a lot of shout outs. But on with the story!**

CHAPTER 6

Kira was not very good at making friends.

She could be hostile and irritable, she was also extremely competitive. She made up for her lack of her friendly demeanor with the quality of her work. But she didn't usually need to be social to pick apart a crime scene and build weapons on the ground out of rubber bands and sheet metal.

But as Kira stared at the text on her phone, the two texts actually. She knew that part of her starting over would be becoming more friendly and ditching the hostile attitude.

 _Try to make some friends_ Audrey advised in her text. Mabel sent a text telling her _"Smile more :) You have a nice smile"_.

Kira wasn't entirely sure she was capable of making friends with the team. Her team seemed nice enough, Kira could probably feign nice she had done a decent enough job trying to this morning. She did snap at the good doctor, but she had been complementary to the tech analyst and JJ. Garcia was it? She seemed nice.

But the real problem wasn't that Kira couldn't be complimentary or nice. Kira could be those things, but Kira had developed a very bad habit in the recent years.

Kira had developed this quirk of being incredibly nit picky. She was very selective with the tools she used, the food she ate, and especially the people she talked to and worked with. She preferred to and usually work alone.

She of course had friends, Audrey and Mabel for example. Kira was also very close with a couple of people she met during college. She technically had her family, though she barely talked to them since she left Boston. But she didn't need anybody else.

The best part of her red cell team was that the members were always being switched out, it was more of a network of people. People that could help out on the case were called in, if not they stayed at home. In the 3 years Kira was on the team she saw the same person twice only about 2 dozen times.

Mabel thought it made her a sociopath, but that wasn't true because Kira had a conscience(A fact Kira would constantly remind her of). She just thought that people made mistakes, there were very few people you could actually count on. The only thing that was completely trustworthy were machines, because even if they messed up it wasn't the machine's fault, it was the creator's.

Kira was playing with the necklace around her neck the when Garcia called. At first she didn't look up from the file she was reading.

"What's up Baby Girl?" Morgan said into the phone. Kira looked up almost immediately with wide eyes filled with shock.

"Boy have I got something for you my chocolate hunk" Garcia said through the phone line. Kira felt her face get hot as the two spoke.

"Lay it on me" Morgan responded.

 _"How could they speak like this? This was clearly sexual harassment!"_ Kira thought. She was tempted to leave the room, or childishly clap her hands over her ears.

"I'll do much more than lay it on you, I have found only 10 stores in the area that sell those type of strings and only two of those stores were frequented by all 4 victims"

"Did any of the victims visit these stores the day of their abductions?" Hotchner asks

"Ummmmm, Yes Tuckers Musicville was visited by 3 of the women. Before you ask I have already sent the address to your phones"

"Thanks baby girl" Morgan says into the phone.

"No problem Hotstuff" Garcia responds before Morgan hangs up. Morgan catches Kira's wide eyed look as he slid his phone into his pocket.

"It's just a thing we do" Morgan says trying to explain himself.

"I think 4 different HR violations occurred in that conversation" Kira stated.

Prentiss chuckles at that statement. "As long as HR never finds out they're fine".

"I won't be telling, I could never say those things out loud" Kira said as she placed the file on her lap back onto the table.

Spencer thought to himself that the reason Kira was uncomfortable with Morgan and Garcia's interactions was her lack of overtly sexual conversations during her adolescent. Probably a male dominated household. She probably is uncomfortable with socialization and is chronically asocial(Unless intoxicated). She probably has very few friends.

"Oh trust me they can be much worse" Prentiss stated.

"I can believe it" Kira agreed with a small smile.

"We'll deliver the profile and then Morgan and Prentiss will head to the music stores. If the unsub keeps to his schedule we will have another body tomorrow" Hotchner orders.

* * *

"We have reason to believe that this unsub is a white male between the ages of 20-35" Hotchner opened.

"Our unsub will be very confident when talking to people, but he negatively reacts if someone were to say laugh at him. He has very extreme self esteem issues" Spencer explained. "While these issues might have never caused a problem before, something recently is acting as a stressor and our unsub has been pushed to kill"

Kira viewed Spencer's addition to the profile as insightful, she knew he could have gone farther into the complexities of the unsubs mental disorder. How he probably battled with a untreated depressive disorder that probably played a part in pushing the unsub to kill. Maybe a traumatic experience that fueled his self esteem issues. But that information wouldn't help the police track him down by tomorrow, accessing medical records would be a doozy for sure. Catching the killer in the shortest amount of time possible was the goal, so he left it out. He was clear and to the point, very focused.

While Kira was doing nothing of the sort. She was off to the side flipping through files as the team went through the profile. Checking and rechecking that the evidence present backed up the profile.

She had of course been asked to provide information on the forensic evidence side of this case to the group. But she rejected it almost immediately, saying she'd like to watch how they went about the proceedings. But in reality Kira was afraid she was going to do something stupid and make a fool of herself in front of the team and the deputies.

"But his self esteem issues will show itself in his actions, he might have committed some petty crimes when he was younger" Morgan added.

"Forensic evidence shows that this unsub is killing in the same area that has regular foot traffic and isn't taking much effort to cover the body" Prentiss states.

"This says he either doesn't care who finds the body, it could be because he's overconfident and he doesn't think we can catch him" Hotchner articulated.

As Kira flipped through the files something caught her eye. Kira stared at the file in her hand. It was a picture of a previous crime scene. The blood splatter on the ground was irregular. A giant splotch in the center, and then random splatters.

Had Mallory gotten a shot in? There wasn't a lot of skin under her nails, but maybe she had managed to make the unsub bleed.

"Or it's because he feels the need to kill in that area" Prentiss points out.

"We have found a connection between the victims besides being female, having blonde hair and all of them being in the age range of 18-25" Hotchner points out.

"All the victims were musicians and they went to this music store the day of their abduction, now we are heading there to canvas right now" Morgan said expanding on what Hotchner said.

Kira rapidly flips through the files, trying to find a better angle of the photos. She knew that male blood cells tended to have more hemoglobin in it. Maybe she could run an analysis at the blood found at the crime scene-

 _SCHWAP_. The sound rings out through the sheriff's office as the files in Kira's hand lands on the ground. More than a dozen papers fall out of their designated folders and flutter to the ground around Kira. She could feel the eyes of everyone in the office on her. Kira's face starts to flush as she quickly bends down to pick up the files without another word.

This would be one of those stupid things Kira didn't want to do.

"But we also think that you should increase patrol on the streets, warn women who fit the victim profile to be vigilant" Morgan states continuing on with the briefing. Clearly ignoring Kira's random klutzy moment, Kira was glad that everyone in the sheriff's office had their attention on him instead of her. Kira looked like something Audrey would call a "hot mess", with her face a burning red as she scrambled across the floor to pick up the papers and slide them into their proper folders.

"I can't hold on to a couple pieces of paper!? What was my problem?!" Kira quietly mumbled to herself.

Another hand reaches down to help her pick up the files. Kira looks up to see Agent Jareau bent down with her blonde hair falling in her eyes. She is carefully stacking every paper into one pile, but she wasn't putting them into a folders.

Maybe she was aware that Kira had to put these a certain order. She was the communication liaison.

"That's all we have as of now" Agent Hotchner said dismissing the deputies with that one deputies and the sheriff scatter. Kira had managed to get all the papers off the floor as the deputies scattered.

"You alright?" JJ asked as she held out the files for Kira to grab.

"Yeah I was just thinking" Kira said taking the papers from JJ.

"Does your coordination drop off when you're thinking too?" JJ asks as she stand up.

"Quite the opposite actually, I build things so I use my hands a lot so I'm quite coordinated, its just my hand slipped" Kira explained as she locked eyes with Spencer across the room. She quickly turned her attention back to the files in her hand as Spencer walked into the boardroom. She could feel her face getting hotter as she realized that he had seen that.

JJ noted that Kira's blush was getting deeper. She casually glanced over her shoulder to see Spencer's sweater vest walk into the boardroom. She may not be a profiler but she knew that something...interesting had happened between the profiler and the ex CIA agent.

"What were you thinking about?" JJ asked trying to see if she could get Kira to tell her about what was going on with Spencer. People generally opened up to JJ, it came with the territory.

"I just got an idea looking at these crime scene photos" Kira explained.

"You need some help, I could try, or if you need a profiler I could get Spencer out here" JJ said slyly.

"No" Kira said quickly. Kira swallowed quickly as she analyzed the look JJ was giving her. Confusion mixed with a hint of "What is wrong with her?".

"Dirt...I mean all I need is dirt...uh..I mean I need the dirt samples from the recent crime scene. Or if they pulled blood samples from the ground...Because they are supposed to do that...and the other crime scene photos" Kira rambled. In that moment Kira wanted nothing more than to beat her fist against her skull.

"I think the other crime scene photos are in the boardroom, but the dirt samples are in evidence lock up-"

"Okay thanks" Kira said quickly as she walked away from JJ, heading to lock up to get the dirt samples.

Kira collapsed against the door of evidence lock up. She was breathing hard as she dropped her face into her hands. God how was she such a clutz? Way to make a first impression Kira! How long could she hide in here? Five minutes? Ten minutes? She certainly didn't want to face anybody just yet.

* * *

Morgan's phone rang as he went to pick up his jacket off the chair. He fishes the phone out of its belt pocket and looks at the caller ID, seeing the word "Baby Girl" flash across the screen he immediately hits answer and puts the phone to his ear.

"What's up baby girl?" Morgan asked as he answered the phone.

"I remember where I've seen her! She is the girl!" Garcia screamed in his ear. Morgan jerks the phone from his ear as she did.

"What?" Morgan asks as he puts the phone on speaker. "Slow down Baby Girl"

"Is the new girl there?" Garcia asks cautiously.

"No she's in evidence lock up" JJ states as she walks into the room. "Looking for dirt samples".

"She's the refugee baby that escaped from Iran, I saw her follow up story on 60 minutes!" Garcia explained in a rush.

"Who is a refugee baby?" Prentiss asks confused.

"Agent Wayne she's the little girl who wound up on the State Department plane when they were investigating Chemical weapon use in the Middle East" Garcia elaborates in a slower pace.

"I remember that story, they made her a ward of the state, and then a US citizen when some stock market guy adopted her" Prentiss chimed in, with a clap of realization.

"It would explain the scars on her arm, they could be chemical burns" Spencer pointed out.

"I didn't just call to flirt with my personal Chocolate Adonis or to share that realization. I am also faxing a list of people who are blind, have lady parts and play an instrument in Jefferson County" Penelope stated. Morgan could hear the fax machine running in the center of the office.

"Thanks Mama" Morgan says as he hangs up.

"Wow a rich girl, maybe she bought her way onto the team" Morgan said in a half sarcastic tone.

Spencer wasn't shocked that Morgan had called that out. He often called out the elephant in the room, mostly because he felt that they needed to be said. Sometimes he was right, this was one of these times. Spencer always thought it was best to know everything he could about his teammates, by either reading their files or talking to them. It allowed for Spencer to trust them more and it promoted team unity.

And Kira was clearly hiding something, and it bothered Spencer that he couldn't figure it out.

"We shouldn't say things like that, I mean Emily is the daughter of an ambassador did you ever think her mother got her on the team" JJ defended.

"That's different, Prentiss was obviously capable. This girl as a field agent? I'll believe it when I see it" Morgan stated as he pulled on his jacket.

"You should have seen her yell at the coroner" Spencer added.

"It's not our place to speculate about members of the team Morgan and Prentiss start with a canvas of the music store" Hotchner orders.

Kira quickly backed away from the door as she hears Hotchner's order. She quickly ducks behind a door that led to a supply closet, making sure not to be seen by Morgan and Prentiss as they left the room.

Kira had heard the entire thing, because she had walked back to the board room to get her CSI kit. She had heard what they said, every last word.

She was right. She didn't want to be right, she had wanted to believe that they could be trusted. That she didn't have to be selective, and instead she had found out she had every right to be selective.

Humans could never be trusted, only machines, only tools, only the fictitious characters Kira read about. Only the things that could never carry any blame.

Kira couldn't cook. She was absolutely, without a doubt the worst cook she knew.

* * *

There were a few things she could manage to make without fault, like a sandwich or mac and cheese. She made a lot of brownies in college for... reasons. Also eggs, she excelled at making eggs.

But pasta, lasagna, soup or any other food that required any actual preparation was out of the question.

Mabel thought Kira should at least be able to make soup, but no that always ended in a disaster.

Kira grew up with a single father, he couldn't cook so she and her siblings had nannies and cooks who fed them. But Kira spent most her life sustaining herself on granola bars, M&Ms and coffee. She could by all technicality survive on the three if she ate the right granola bar, but it wasn't exactly healthy.

But this had led Kira to have a very small appetite. She often skipped lunch and occasionally dinner and worked through those hours. It worried her father when she was younger, he thought Kira had an eating disorder. But in reality Kira was honestly not hungry.

Which is what Kira should have explained when JJ walked into the storage closet where Kira was running blood analysis.

"Hey Kira we are getting lunch, you want anything?" came JJ's voice. Kira just barely glanced up from her microscope. She was trying very hard to analyze the scraps of dried blood off the ground in comparison to the blood they had taken from Mallory Evans.

"I'm fine" Kira stated. Did she have plasma in her CSI kit? This was a standard FBI issued Field CSI kit. Had she remembered to grab some from the FBI labs? She was pretty sure.

"You don't have to worry about paying the bureau covers it" JJ explained.

"I usually get into a zone when I'm working, I'd rather not stop" Kira said. She could probably get plasma from the coroner's office, but she wasn't exactly popular over there.

"What are you doing?" JJ asked as she walked into the closet. She leaned over Kira's shoulder trying to get a look at what she was doing.

"Analysis on blood found at the scene, trying to see if it's only the victims. Mallory shoulder is real beat up I think she tried to shoulder him, maybe she made him bleed" Kira elaborated as she studied the dried blood.

"Sounds like a long shot" JJ stated as she took a couple of steps back.

"Better than no shot, we have less than a day to find this unsub before another woman dies so I am chasing this bullet" Kira said as she studied the amount of red blood cells. There were definitely more in the dried blood than in Mallory's.

"EUREKA!" Kira shouted with glee. This number of RBC's meant that the blood belonged to someone who was male. Which meant it definitely didn't belong to Mallory.

"What?" JJ asked confused.

"Its different! Its different!" Kira exclaimed. to JJ that made no sense, but she could tell Kira was busy. So JJ walked back to the closet door.

"Well we'll order you something" JJ said as she walked out of the door.

"Don't bother, I'll be fine" Kira said excitedly. She got up from her seat and started to dig through her CSI kit. "I can sustain myself on granola bars"

JJ decided to leave. Kira wasn't comfortable with the team just yet, if she wanted to work alone she could work alone. Maybe she had to be in here to analyze the blood, JJ didn't know. But she certainly wasn't going to be in the way.

JJ left without another word, and Kira felt guilty for sending her away like that. JJ had been the one to help her with the papers, JJ had also defended her when Morgan called her a pampered rich girl.

Morgan's insult was still ringing around in her brain. It's not like she hadn't heard jabs like that before. She heard it all the time because she was young, skinny female who had made a lot of mistakes in a very high ranked position in the government. But the fact that his snap judgement probably came from Kira dropping the files during the profile delivery. The judgement came from something Kira had caused. But doesn't all judgement technically stem from something the person being judge-

Kira shook her head to clear her thoughts. Kira was on the brink of something, she had to follow this through. She didn't have time to worry about Morgan or JJ. Mallory had died getting this unsub to bleed. She wasn't gonna get distracted.

Kira had grown up with nannies and cooks, and an adoring father who wanted Kira and her siblings to have the best of everything. He had encouraged her every psychotic genius plan, and he supported her siblings in anything and everything they wanted to do.

Maybe Kira was a pampered rich girl, Kira wasn't exactly sure. But Kira was definitely a capable field agent.

* * *

Morgan and Prentiss had pulled up to Tucker's Musicville. It was a small concrete building smack dab in the middle of the woods, on the way into Westport, Texas. It had a broken neon sign over the door and dusty front windows. But despite the damaged exterior of the store. It was getting a lot of traffic, a dozen cars were parked in the parking lot.

Morgan and Prentiss made their way into the air conditioned store, and out of the arid climate of Texas. There was a bustling crowd in the store, examining various instruments.

"Can I help y'all with anything?" came a stocky teenage boy, he has messy brown hair and dull green eyes. A thin red scar is beside his right eye doesn't make his smile any less bright. "In case you didn't know our annuals sale is going on".

"You could let us talk to the manager?" Prentiss asks showing the store worker her badge at the same time Morgan removes his from his pocket and shows it off.

"That's me" came an older man from behind the teenage boy. He had the same dull green eyes and messy brown hair, but his hair gray in some areas despite the man's age being no more than 30.

"Tucker Carroll" he says with a nervous hand held out towards the pair. "Is something wrong?"

"Maybe we should talk somewhere a little more private" Prentiss suggests as she shakes his hand.

"Yeah let's do that" he says running a hand through his hair as he shakes Morgan's hand. "I have an office in the back, come on"

Tucker mouses the hair of the teenage boy. The teenage boy shoves his hands away with a gruff sound.

"Go stock something Arnie" he directs towards the teenage boy shoving him towards a shelf. Tucker starts towards the back of the store with two agents behind him.

"My little brother" Tucker says with a dismissive wave towards the teenage stock boy. Tucker stops at a bright red door, he fumbles with a set of keys before unlocking and opening the door.

He opens the door to a small office. It was pretty barren except for a desk, a rolly chair, and a window that showed an entire view of the store.

"If this about my rap sheet, I run an honest establishment" Tucker said the moment he closed the door.

"Excuse me?" Morgan asks.

"I did some time for drug possession but I'm clean now, I have been for a while. I have been keeping up with my parole officer! I don't think I have done anything wrong to deserve the 5th degree!" Tucker's voice gets louder as he transitions through his rant.

"Calm down man, we aren't here because of you!" Morgan says with a forceful hand on the man's shoulder.

"So what's this about?" Tucker asks shoving off Morgan's hand.

"Have you seen any of these women before?" Prentiss asks pulling photos of the three women that had been killed.

"Is that Mallory and Laura? And Kenzie? I see them all the time! My regulars actually!"Tucker said pointing at all the photos.

"And what about her?" Prentiss asks pulling out a photo of the very first victim, the victim who had not visited the store on the day of her abduction. At least according to her credit card bills and Garcia.

"Oh and I've seen her a few times, I don't know her name though" Tucker states. "Why? Are they in trouble?" he asks, clear signs of worry on his face.

"They were all murdered in the past two weeks" Morgan stated.

"Ohmygod" Tucker sighs as he collapses into his chair. "How are their families?"

"Grief stricken obviously, but they'll feel a lot better if we can catch the guy who did it" Prentiss states.

"Why are you here then you should be out finding them!" he exclaimed as he stood up abruptly with the anger very clear on his face.

"We have reason to believe that this store is where our killer chooses his victims" Prentiss explains slowly. Tucker's face visibly softens, the anger disappears from his face.

"You're kidding right?" he asks. He collapses back into his chair, running a nervous hand through his hair.

"We're sorry" Prentiss says. "But we need your help"

"Anything" he says running a hand through his hair.

"We are looking for a man in his early twenties. He'd be quite a regular in this building. He's very overconfident, but doesn't necessarily have the skills to back it up. He negatively reacts if a person even looks at him the wrong way. People might be afraid to be around him" Prentiss explains.

"You know what there's this homeless man that stand around outside a lot" Tucker realized. "He comes in a lot to get the free guitar picks. He has this beat up 6 string with him, but he isn't very good at playing it".

"Do you have a name?" Morgan asks.

"No I don't" Tuckers says sadly dropping his head in his hands. "I can't believe they're dead"

Morgan's phone rings and he fishes it out of his pocket. He looks at the caller ID to see that it was his favorite tech analyst.

"I'll be right back" he says walking out of the office. He hits answer and puts the phone to his ear.

"To what do I owe the delight baby girl" he asks with a smile.

"I looked into the Guy Tucker Carroll, he has a rap sheet for drug possession and other petty crimes" Garcia explained.

"He's in our age range, but he says he's been keeping up with his parole officer-"

"And he'd be telling the truth, hasn't missed a day in a year. He's a member of the PTA at his brother's high school, he seem like an all around decent guy now" Garcia declared.

"Yeah well he might be just the brother of guy named Arnie" Morgan thought aloud.

"Arnie?"Garcia inquiries

"Yeah, pretty much how you'd imagine. Lanky kid, cut on his face" Morgan describes as his eyes land on the stock boy across the room. He was showing a drum set off to a group of people.

"It's not that hard to figure out why. But hey not everyone can have a delicious name like Derek Morgan" Garcia teases.

"He said this homeless person frequents this place, he doesn't have a name. Can you work your magic Baby girl and find out who he is"

"I don't think so hon, not without a name or a scrap of a social security number"Garcia responds.

"Thanks anyway Garc-" Morgan stops talking. Out of the corner of his eye. He sees a blonde girl in the parking lot approaching her car. In the background is a ragged looking guy with a torn cowboy hat on his head. He's holding a beat up guitar and he's eyeing the girl

"Morgan?" Garcia asks.

"I've gotta go" Morgan state's hanging up the phone. "Prentiss!" he shouts before he rushes for the door and runs outside.

"Hey!" he shouts. The homeless man looks up at him from across the street. "What are you doing?"

The man takes off running with Morgan in hot pursuit. Morgan's boot covered feet grip the asphalt, but the man's torn shoes catch against the asphalt. He trips and falls against the pavement, Morgan is quick to grab his arms and pulls them behind his back.

"Why you running!" he asks gruffly. The man struggles against Morgan's grasp but Morgan forcefully holds him back long enough to slap a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. He pulls him off the ground and watches the blood dripping onto the ground. Morgan was now aware of the bleeding cut on the suspects forehead.

"I'm injured" he groans.

"You'll live" Morgan retorted.

"You alright?" Prentiss asks running up to him, Morgan just nods in response.

"Let's get him to the station" Morgan says dragging the suspect to the SUV so they could take him back to the station.

* * *

Kira did not like working in the closet. It smelled like old paper and dust.

But she did like being away from the team. Besides Morgan's comment about Kira's economic status, being around them gave her anxiety. Mostly because she wasn't used to the job of profiling serial killer and they were, which made Kira think that she would never be good at the job...and blah blah blabbity blah.

It also gave her the opportunity to work alone. Even though little had come from Kira working alone. Kira had been staring at this microscope for almost 2 hours. Her eyes burned from having to staring into the little lense.

She rubbed her eyes. She had barely had enough to analyze the blood, even after she had brought it back to a liquidish state with an infusion of plasma. Which had taken forever.

She hadn't learned much from the blood sample of the unsub. Except that he was male, and he had a very high WBC count for such a small sample of blood. He probably had the flu in the past couple of weeks.

The fact that he had gotten the flu didn't help catch Mallory's killer.

Kira pulled her hair from the ponytail and fastened her hair into a loose bun with a pencil. Maybe the change in hairstyle would loosen some of the pressure on her brain.

Kira dropped her head to the table. The gun at her waist cut into her stomach, she sat up quickly and removed her holster. She threw it onto the table with a clang. Kira commonly used a holster that wrapped around her leg for this exact reason. But that holster was in a Kira's apartment in an unpacked box.

Another downside to this case. She had to deal with this uncomfortable holster.

She didnt even know why she bothered to carry the gun, she was just a forensic analyst. Plus if she knew Erin like she thought she did the gun was just to make Kira seem like and equal.

"What am I missing she thought? He has the right amount of RBCs and lymphocytes, everything was normal, even his cholesterol! The only thing was his WBC" Kira mused.

"The platelets! Where are all the platelets?" Kira says aloud. She looks back into the microscope, for a sample this size there should be 150–350 × 109, but by her count there was only a couple thousand.

"The unsub has this disorder! We could track him with this! Sure it was a more minor form but it could still require hospitalization!" Kira said out loud as she scribbled down her notes into a file folder that had been labeled Blood Analysis.

It took Kira awhile to realize that she was talking to herself. It took another moment for her to realize that she should probably tell someone about this.

Kira opened the door to her closet and saw Morgan through the window of what was a makeshift interrogation room. Agent Hotchner and Agent Prentiss stood off on the side of the room. He was dressed in ragged clothing and he was covered in dirt. A fresh wound was on his head right above the eyes he was using to stare Morgan dead in the eye as he hounded him with questions.

"Who is that man?" I ask aloud. JJ hears me talking and turns to look at me.

"A suspect"

"Do they have name yet"

"Marcus Knott, we found a driver's license. But he hasn't answered anything yet"

"Is this his stuff?" Kira asks approaching a green backpack and a ragged guitar with a worn brown leather strap.

"Yeah" JJ said as Kira ran her careful gloved fingers over the guitar strap. Her fingers run into something that was hard and metal. Confused, Kira investigated the metal object. Her fingers wrapped around metal chain with a metal pendant dangling from the chain.

 _KNOTT MARCUS J._

 _771075144USN AP_

 _CATHOLIC_

It wasn't just a chain and a metal pendant. They were dog tags. The silver dog tags on that special ball chain, incredibly similar to the tags that Kira had kept safely in a box somewhere. These dog tags weren't in a box they were around this guitar strap, that belonged to the man with the scabbing wound on his head.

The wound!

"He's not our unsub" Kira stated

"How are you so sure?" JJ asks.

"He get that cut in the arrest?" Kira asks.

"Yes he fell-Where are you going?" JJ called after her.

Kira stopped listening to JJ, she was already moving to the other side of the facility. Her blood was pounding in her head as she crossed the office. She could practically hear the writing that would go on her pink slip, but Kira drowned out the sound with the banging on the shutter covered window

* * *

"Let him out!"

Spencer looks away from the board he was so carefully sticking pins into. He walks away from the board and looks out into the hall. He see's Kira banging on the windows of the makeshift interrogation room.

"Agent Wayne!" Hotchner chides stepping out of the room. Spencer takes long strides to cover the area of the room. He appeared at Agent Hotchner's side as he stared down Kira. Kira's face showed clear signs of distress, her hair was falling out of the bun. But she didn't seem to care.

"He's not your guy! Did you even see these tags! He's military! I doubt you knew that, none of his things were even processed" Kira shouts. "How could a man who spent his life defending others do this to innocent women?".

"Doesn't mean he's not our unsub" Morgan stated walking out of the room. He made a quiet down motion with his hands as he carefully closed the door behind him. "We've seen it before not all soldiers come back from war the same way".

"You could have at least treated him with some respect" Kira spat at him. Spencer was taken aback by the way she was talking to Morgan. It was very similar to how she talked to the Coroner, determination dripped from her voice. She probably had very close ties with the military, maybe a family member or a spouse.

Oh god what if she was married! 30% of people who cheat on their spouses never give their real name, is that why she said we couldn't date!

Spencer looked at her fingers for a wedding ring, he didn't see one. But 40% of married people didn't wear a wedding ring.

"What makes you say he isn't our unsub, besides the military background?" Agent Hotchner asks. Hotch's voice snaps Spencer out of his train of thoughts and back to the conversation at hand.

"He got that cut in the arrest am I right?" Kira inquired.

"Yeah, so?" Morgan asks.

"If he's our unsub he should still be bleeding" Kira stated. "Our unsub has a hemophilia. Its the inability to create blood clots because of a lack of platelet cells and a bunch of other things, but mostly the platelet cells"

"I analyzed blood found at the scene. One is definitely Mallory's the other is the unsubs" Kira explained. "The unsubs blood has close to thousand cells, not even close to enough for a sample that size. His disorder isn't as bad as most cases but he has it nonetheless"

Spencer was impressed she had managed to figure that out in about 2 hours. Diagnosing hemophilia was very difficult, especially with decomposing blood. Though he hadn't quite forgiven her for what had happened in the coroner's office, he had to be impressed by her speed. To get a blood analysis done at Quantico would have taken at least triple that time.

"If he was our unsub, he would have never clotted this fast. The small scratch Mallory could have caused could still be bleeding if it hasn't been taken care by medical personnel" Kira staed. She couldn't tell if Hotchner completely believed her. She quickly shoved the folder at Spencer.

"Check my science tell me I'm not right" Kira said as she forced the file into his hands.

Spencer fumbled with file that was roughly shoved at him. But he was quick to flip through the files and scan through Kira's terrible handwriting to find the information on the platelet cells. He looked at the numbers, and he had to agree Kira was right.

"She's right" Spencer stated handing Hotchner the file. Kira noted that he was careful talking to Hotchner, she had yet to hear him say anything to disrespect him or see him do anything that went against Hotchner's orders. He clearly valued him as a leader.

"That right there is a war veteran who fell on some hard times and you not only threw him in jail, but you manhandled him in the process" Kira seethed. She was absolutely furious that they didn't process the soldier's things.

"Give me the handcuff keys" Kira asked holding out her hand. Morgan held out the keys and Kira snatches the keys then proceeds to burst into the interrogation room where Prentiss was. Morgan and Hotch closely behind her.

"Let me guess, Admiral ?" she asks walking towards the man.

"Actually just a Lt. in the-" the man starts to answer.

"The US Navy, I know how to read dog tags" She says reaching for the handcuffs."Military dad, honorable discharge from the Army. I've had a dog tag around my neck since I learned how to open the door"

Military family meant strict upbringing Spencer thought. Her father probably encouraged her to join the CIA as a consultant, even though she was very young.

"I'm so sorry Lt. Knott, my team and I made a mistake trying to catch a killer." Kira apologizes as she unlocks the man's handcuffs.

"You were doing your job" he says with a dismissive wave. He rubs his wrists and points to the scars on Kira's arm. "You serve in the war?" He asks as he runs a finger over the scars, Kira flinches.

"I help my country in a different way, mostly from behind a microscope and a bag tools" Kira says smoothly. "You guys do all the real fighting"

"Clearly you got some action" he pointed out.

"This was just some bad luck, but that doesn't matter" Kira says with a wave of her hand. "Come on sir let's get your stuff and get you back to whaling on your guitar".

* * *

"Why wasn't I told you had made an arrest?" Kira seethes as she storms into the boardroom. The rest of the team follows her into the room. Hotchner closes the door behind the group.

"The team made an arrest-" Morgan starts to explain before Kira cuts him off.

"Oh I want no part in your arrest, cause it was a stupid one" Kira snaps

"We couldn't have known this information about the unsub" Morgan argued.

"I was literally on my way with the pages, but I walk in the room and I see you going to town on a fricking war veteran!" Kira retorted.

"I didn't know he was a veteran!" Morgan countered.

"How about you wait about five minutes for the background check before you start giving him the fifth degree?" Kira snapped back.

"In case you didn't notice we are on a clock" Morgan pointed out.

"Calm down the both of you, us fighting among ourselves doesn't help the women in this county" Hotchner demanded.

Kira crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Morgan, and he glared right back. Would she have picked this much of a fight if it had been another member of the team, and not the man who insulted her? Probaby. Kira was incredibly pro military, it came from living with an ex Navy Seal. Kira's father's family had a long line of soldiers, police and government employees, it had actually upset Kira's grandparents when her father had become a investment banker. He always apologized at Christmas for making 150K every quarter.

The Wayne Family had started the "Love and Combat Boots Foundation". A charity that helped soldiers, deployed or undeployed in a crap ton of ways. Kira used to take her little sister and her little brother to sing at the shelters for the wounded veterans and veterans suffering with PTSD and other disorders. Kira wouldn't sing, just her sister and brother. Kira could not sing at all, but she could kind of play the piano because it was essentially math.

Kira had worked with military divisions, she had seen first hand how war could disrupt someone and throw their life off track. She didn't like Morgan manhandling the corporal one bit, she would have hated it if anyone had done it.

"How does this disorder change the profile?" Hotchner asks Kira. Kira thought about it for a second, but before she could answer Spencer started talking.

"He's most likely still in our age range, possibly younger" Spencer said.

"He'll go down fighting if he gets even the slightest upper hand. But if we get ahead of him he'll cave" Kira said quickly.

"But it probably means he's a lot more cautious than we thought. He might be killing the women in the lot because they were already there" Spencer finished. Kira sent him a look that he didn't notice.

"Why would the victims be there?" Prentiss asked.

"I don't know" Kira answered. "But I would check with the kids who usually hang there, see if anyone had seen them around before the day they died".

"Why don't you and Morgan start on that canvassing?" Hotchner suggests, pointing to Spencer and Morgan.

"We don't really have time for another canvas" Kira interjected. "I say we bring the kids here".

"You wanna bring in a bunch of teenagers for an interrogation?" Morgan asked in a condescending tone.

"I'm saying the kids have probably been caught for some behavioral issue" Kira elaborated with a roll of her eyes. "Let's bring them in for formal questioning find out what those women could have doing out there".

"And you think they'll respond?" Morgan asks, again in a condescending tone.

"Maybe if you're not doing the interrogation" Kira retorted.

"Stop it the both of you" Hotchner ordered. "JJ see if you can get one of the deputies to bring in one of these teens that frequent the lot".

"Definitely" JJ responded with a nod.

"Thank you Agent Jareau" Kira says with a little bow of her head. Kira had taken a liking to JJ, even if she wasn't the best at showing it.

"What else can you get from a blood analysis?" Hotchner asks Kira.

"If he's living on radioactive land I can see that" Kira joked. Hotchner gives her a look and she flushes.

"That was a bad joke I'm sorry" Kira apologized. " If he or any family member is in the system I can make a connection"

"Reid I want you to go through Agent Wayne's blood analysis" Hotchner dictated. Spencer nodded in response to the order. He wasn't exactly looking forward to working with Kira, things were already uncomfortable with her. He was even less sure about what working with Kira would be like after seeing her yell at Morgan.

"I don't think you'll fit in the closet, don't worry about it we can move the microscope in here" Kira rambled as she picked up her files.

"Why are you in a closet?" Spencer asked confused.

"Didn't you need to analyze the blood in lower light?" JJ asked with a pointed finger.

"You don't need lower light to analyze blood, just a microscope" Spencer explained. She had probably wanted to be away from the team while she worked, maybe she worked better alone.

"Don't judge it! Just help me get the microscope in here" Kira replied as she left the boardroom. Spencer followed behind her to help her get the microscope, but he is stopped at the door when JJ grabbed his arm as he walked past her.

"Play nice" JJ advised. He wasn't sure what she was talking, because she couldn't possibly know what had happened between Kira and himself. Spencer nodded in response and then continued to follow Kira to the microscope.

* * *

Pulling DNA from the blood sample was made a lot simpler thanks to the abundance of White Blood Cells. Kira made a mental note to thank the unsub for catching a cold. Kira had already broken down the membrane and was now injecting enzymes to break down all the protein, RNA, sugars and fats in the solution.

Kira was making sure to be completely professional with Spencer. Only talking to him when she had to, avoiding his touch. She was doing a pretty good job if she had to say so herself.

"So the kids said that the girls would play music there" JJ stated.

"Makes sense, it was probably a hang out when they were kids" Prentiss says. "Abandoned lot frequented by a lot of teens, perfect place to hold underground concerts".

"We close off the lot then" Morgan proposes.

"Cornering him would force him to deviate from pattern forcing his devolution" Hotchner points out.

"Which means he'll probably make mistakes" Prentiss states.

"But we'd probably double our body count" Kira states.

"Our key to finding our unsub is in the victimology, Prentiss and Morgan focus on that" Hotchner orders. "I think closing the lot is our best bet. How far are Reid and you from finishing with the DNA extraction".

"30 minutes?" Kira says looking to Spencer for his opinion.

"Maybe 20" Spencer adds.

"Get it done quickly, and I will start working on closing the lot" Hotchner said as he and JJ leave the room.

"All the victim files are here, crime scene here and autopsies are here" Kira explained to Morgan and Prentiss. She points to a file of folders with each category. Prentiss grabs the victim files and gives half to Morgan.

Kira goes back to the DNA. She mixes in ethanol to the solution to separate the DNA from the remainders of the cell. Spencer places the beaker aside and she grabs her microscope slides and slides them into the microscope.

"What are you doing?" Spencer asks.

"Making sure we didn't miss something" Kira says as she stares through the lens of the microscope. Kira obsessively checked and rechecked her work. Spencer believed that maybe Kira had a slight case of OCD just like himself.

Working with Kira hadn't been as bad as Spencer thought. It was hard to focus since she still smelled like coffee and nutmeg, which brought back flashes of the night before. But Spencer was able to stay focused on finishing the case notes that went along with the blood analysis.

Kira wasn't incredibly hostile, but she was silent. Spencer thought maybe he should try to make nice with her, apparently he was clearly apprehensive to her. At least enough for JJ to tell something was up, or she wouldn't have told him to "Play nice".

"What work did you do with the CIA?" Spencer decided to ask. It seemed like a good question to spark some small talk.

Kira glanced towards Spencerwhen he asked Kira that question she did not want to answer.. Spencer was finalizing the case notes on the blood analysis. Spencer had been designated to write the notes since Kira's handwriting had been dubbed terrible. Kira noted that Spencer liked organization, and the messy handwriting messed with whatever system he had. Kira speculate he had a slight case of OCD, just like Kira.

"If I told you I would have to kill you" Kira stated as she slid out the microscope slide. Clearly Spencer was wrong.

"I'm sorry" Spencer apologized leaning back in his chair. "I'm not trying to pry, it's your business".

Kira was almost immediately washed over with a wave of guilt as she heard his apology. She had to be professional, not harsh.

"Genocide" Kira stated. She felt her tongue becoming dry as the word rolled off her tongue. The concept of genocide made Kira sick to her stomach. She resisted the urge to dry heave.

"What?" Spencer asked confused.

"I hunted people who were responsible for genocide. The division was for High Level Organized crime, it was war lords, terrorism and genocide." Kira elaborated. "Very bright sunny stuff".

Kira tended to be sarcastic and joke about things that are generally dark or if she is in a stressful situation. A method of deflection Spencer thought. She was trying to distance herself from the darkness. The same thing Garcia did with all the colorful toys in her office.

"I didn't know the CIA had operations that went after people responsible for genocide" Prentiss pointed out.

"None that you are supposed to know about" Kira joked, finally looking up from her microscope. "I mean it's not like they'll kill me or anything"

"How are serial killers different from genocidal maniacs?" Prentiss inquired.

"I mean they're all psychopaths and sociopaths" Kira stated. "But with my old unit we did not analyze victimology"

"Why not?" Morgan asks.

"There are too many victims to count. If you tried to analyze all of them, you'd be there for days, long enough to let them get away. You'd probably go crazy in the process" Kira explained.

"How long were you overseas?" Morgan asked

"My first case was when I was 23, and it was on and off for about 3 years because of other random operations. AKira replied.

"Wow" Morgan expressed.

"It was no big deal" Kira said with a dismissive wave of her hand. The disbelief rang in Agent Morgan's voice like a church bell, it struck many chords with Kira.

"Sounds like a big deal" Spencer voiced.

"Well I guess us pampered rich girls don't really understand what that means" Kira scoffed as she pulled the DNA from the solution. She placed the DNA into a bio-hazard test tube and the went to her CSI case.

"What?" Spencer asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, which Kira thought was very cute(Not that she would ever admit that). Spencer was wondering why she referred to herself as as a "pampered rich girl" since she had never done it before. So why was she doing it now?

"I mean we are so used to having our daddies buy us things" Kira said as pulled out an evidence bag from her CSI kit. "We can't possibly understand the gravity of a stressful situation". The bag moved through the air, as Kira used her hands to emphasize whatever angry message she was trying to say.

"What are you talking about?" Morgan asked. And as he did Spencer finally put all the pieces together.

She was angry, she was referring to herself as a "Pampered rich girl, she was showing the most rage to Morgan.

"Lets just say one thing I don't need my dad to buy me is a pair of ears"" Kira stated.

Kira had heard what they had all said. About her father and how Morgan thought she wasn't a good field agent.

"Look don't take it personally-" Morgan started.

"No I completely understand, I'm rich so suddenly all of credentials become null and void" Kira said sarcastically. " Its exactly what every other alpha male I've worked with has said".

"That's not what I said" Morgan said defensively.

"Its what you insinuated" Kira pointed out.

"Now hold on a minute" Morgan argued.

"Frankly Agent Morgan I have no desire to prove myself to you" Kira spat. "I know what I'm capable of, I don't need your validation".

"But I'm 50% sure I'll have it before we head back to Quantico" Kira finished as she slid the test tube in the evidence bag and sealed it off.

Kira was full of false confidence in his moment. She didn't know where it came from, but she knew statements like this is what made it impossible for Kira to be friends with anyone. She could tell by the look that Morgan was giving Kira and the awkward glances Prentiss and Reid were sharing that Kira had crossed a line. Spencer looked the most uncomfortable, dysfunction among the team must make him uncomfortable. Maybe because he thought of the team as his family.

"I need to call your tech analyst, I need her to run the DNA sample through VICAP. It will be at the processing location in 20 minutes, I wanna know if she can do show me the search processing on this laptop, I wanna see the results the moment they come through" Kira said.

Morgan pulled out his phone in a huff and hit the speed dial on his phone that rang to Garcia.

Spencer knew that Garcia would be able to do that, but no one had ever asked her too. The entire team just let Garcia deal with VICAP and DNA analysis. What did it say about Kira? That she wanted to wait for the results, what kind of person did that make her?

Spencer knew the Moratorium on Inter Team Profiling meant that Spencer should not be profiling Kira. And not only was he profiling her, he had spent most of the day analyzing her behavior alongside the unsub. But Spencer wanted to know more about her, and he became upset when he realized Kira didn't care to learn anything about him.

But he didn't know that the ex CIA agent was trying her best to profile the young genius, because she wanted to know him too.


	7. Author's Note

Hey how is it going guys, I have been meaning to update but in the moment in time am super stressed with SATs. So please be patient, I will be back to updating as soon as I can.


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